


FTL: Faster Than OH MY STARS!

by arizonia1



Category: FTL: Faster Than Light (Video Game), Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Brothers, TheRunawayGuys, Xenoblade Chronicles, 新・光神話 パルテナの鏡 | Kid Icarus: Uprising (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, Asphyxiation, Bad Decisions, Blood and Gore, Bloodlust, Carnage - Freeform, Drama, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Interspecies Awkwardness, Interspecies Relationship(s), M/M, Machine Sex, Mind Control, Robin not having pants, Self-Sacrifice, Slight Redemption, Space Battles, Space Krakens, Space Pirates, Space Puns, Stripping Under Mind Control, Stupidity, Swearing, Tentacle Monsters, Tentacle Rape, Time Shenanigans, cloning, innuendos, mostly in the form of Emile, mostly in the form of Jon, some people just want to watch the world burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-02
Updated: 2016-03-04
Packaged: 2018-03-15 23:10:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 9
Words: 32,526
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3465497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arizonia1/pseuds/arizonia1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Federation is running out of time and crew but have vital information that needs to be sent to the higher-ups seven space sectors over! A brave, and somewhat stupid, crew of misfits step up to the challenge to help take down the Rebels. Along the way they hope to make some new allies, and not lose them on the voyage. Do they succeed?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sector One: Civilian Sector

**Author's Note:**

> If you have no idea what is going on in this story, I recommend you watch my LP of the game FTL: Faster Than Light at “Ari Zonia” on YouTube. I also highly recommend you look up the species of the FTL-verse to know what I’m talking about in this story.
> 
> Characters; Chuggaaconroy, Mantis!MasaeAnela, Rockman!ProtonJon, Engi!Shulk, Engi!Lucahjin, Mantis!SuperJeenius, Mantis!Reyn, Male Robin/Male My Unit, Zoltan!Melia
> 
> Pairings; Implied Shulk/Melia, Shulk/Male Robin, Implied Shulk/Reyn, Robin/Space Kraken, vaguely implied Chuggaaconroy/MasaeAnela

Time was running out for the Federation. Vital information needed to get to the higher-ups, and fast. The problem is that they are seven sectors over! Men and ships were a scarce commodity that was quickly running short in contrast to the Rebel fleet. Volunteers also didn’t want to step up either since most didn’t get past the dangerous Sectors just beyond the exit beacon.   
  
The Major paces back and forth as he attempts to think. Is no one in the fleet brave enough to travel through the sectors!? Perhaps he doesn’t need someone brave. No, no, he needs someone stupid. Someone that isn’t aware of the full threat of the Rebels.   
  
“You! Johnson!” The Major shouts to a nearby subordinate. “Go see if you can go find someone ignorant enough to go eight sectors over and deliver the data!”   
  
Private Johnson salutes. “Yes sir Major Dick!”

* * *

Some time passes before Johnson returned with a misfit group of four. Only one looked like he belonged to the Federation.   
  
“Captain Emiliano of the SS Runaway reporting for duty sir!” The brunette in the Federation uniform shouts.   
  
The Major nods. “Captain Emile, we need you to deliver this data to the higher-ups seven sectors over. Can we trust you and your crew?”   
  
Emile nods with enthusiasm, he assures he and his group can make the journey. It was rare to see a crew consisting of the four main races in the Federation. Besides the captain, there was with a terracotta colored Rockman with blond hair and a beanie, a pale green Mantis with long forest green hair, and a steel-grey Engi with pale blond hair. A ragtag group to say the least, but reliable looking nonetheless.   
  
After being handed the vital data the captain turns around and motions his team to follow him. Due to the fact the Rockman moves slower, the Engi rearranged his nanomachine parts to take shape of a horse-like creature to carry the other blond.

* * *

After arriving back on the ship, Emile directs his teammates to their respective positions.  
  
“Masae! To the engines with you. Jon, go man the weapons. Shulk, you’re on shields.”    
  
The three do their best at saluting. The Mantis makes her way towards the engine room while the Engi is off to shields and Rockman to weapons. After everyone was in their proper places the captain turned on the engines, redirected power from the medbay, and opened the star map. This sector was fairly peaceful, being so far away from the main sectors under besige of the Rebel forces. Quickly the brunette plans out his route and takes a seat in his pilot chair.   
  
“Alright everyone!” Emile shouts gleefully. “Let’s get going! Through Civilian space we go!”   
  
The FTL drive is all charged, and the ship is adequately fueled up. The ship activates the drive and jumps quickly to the next beacon to see a nearby asteroid field. Masae comes up on the communicator from the engine room.   
  
“Captain. An asteroid field is within flying range~.” The Mantis lisps through her teeth. “We fly into? Or avoid damage to ship~? Treasure be likely~.”   
  
The human brings up the shield room communicator to discuss this with the brains of the ship. “First mate, what do you say we do? Since you’re in charge of keeping the ship safe from the asteroids.”   
  
Emotionless green eyes stare back as the Engi contemplates. “Probability of finding resources minimal. Minimal… Unlikely to experience damage…”   
  
It was always hard to tell if Shulk was capable of being anything but emotionless. However he was always good at predicting outcomes of situations. As if he could see the future. Happily the captain follows the plan of searching through the field. Occasionally the brunette gives orders to Jon to shoot a stray asteroid while the Engi crewmate checks the scanners in the camera room for the possibility of resources.   
  
After a few minutes of searching the crew managed to find five fuel cells. That should hopefully keep them going through the second sector at the least. Praise is given to the crew as Emile reactivates the FTL and jumps to the next beacon on the star map, close to where they had started their voyage.   
  
After arriving at the beacon Jon comes into view on the communicator.   
  
“Emile! Rebel ship just ahead. Weapons are ready to charge at your command.” The blond Rockman calls. He was always itching to blow something up.   
  
In response Shulk comes back into view after a quick scan. “Ship not meant to combat. Outfitted to transport. Avoid aggravation. Avoid.”   
  
Emile ignores the warning and orders his weapon man to power up the burst laser. Hopefully they’ll get something good out of this fight.   
  
“We semand the durrender of your goods!” The brunette yells. “Wait. I meant we _demand_ the _surrender_ of your goods!”   
  
It doesn’t take long for the shield man of the ship to realize the enemy was powering up their FTL drive to get out of the fight. Knowing how the SS Runaway only have one aimable weapon, the Rebels were pretty much guaranteed to get away from the incompetent crew. Shulk sighs unceremoniously as he starts letting his body randomly reform into whatever as his hands floated above the terminal to keep the shields running. The fight was pointless. The captain was just dumb enough to try.   
  
About a minute passes and the transport vessel obviously escapes from the ragtag group. Masae has to run in a circle to keep from destroying anything in anger due to the ‘loss’. Emile nervously laughs off the encounter and just directs Masae to get back to her post so they can jump to the next beacon. Not before he yells at his Engi crew to get up from the floor and reattach his hands. It’s always strange to see a pair of disembodied hands floating and typing away on a keyboard.   
  
The FTL charges fully again and the crew makes a few more jumps through the sector before finally arriving at an outpost to restock on supplies and take a bit of a rest. Unfortunately the crew is flat broke and are unable to buy anything from the merchant. Much to the dismay of everyone, especially the extremely hungry Masae. If anything the Mantis girl looked like she was about to eat Emile’s head. It took a lot of willpower to not send Jon to squish her, but the captain still did not appreciate the insect drooling and melting the floor beneath them, as well as the brunette’s shoes.   
  
After getting back onto the ship with nothing new to report Emile directs the ship to a beacon close by with a ship waiting for someone’s arrival. By appearance it looks to be a slug ship, but it’s just pirates. They offer to scan the area for the crew of the SS Runaway for a fee. Due to being broke though, the crew is forced to fight the pirates. Hopefully these guys won’t pose too much of a challenge for the underpowered fighters.   
  
Thankfully after a little bit of battering the pirates surrender and hand over some much needed supplies. Emile thanks the pirates and has Jon deactivate the weapons before jumping off to another store present and have the hull of the ship repaired for most of the on-hand scrap everyone has. Thankfully this sector is known for its cheap prices.    
  
However, not everything was peaceful as the next beacon has another pirate vessel lying in wait.   
  
The captain of the pirates hails the SS Runaway and opens communications. “ _Hello idiots. So nice of you to drop by. You see, we’re slave traders._ ”   
  
The crew of four shudder. They know all about these traders. Depending on the species of their slave depends on what happens to them usually when sold. Mantis are sent into galactic cockfights, Rockmen undergo horrible testing, Engi are worked until they break, and humans usually become sex slaves. Especially males if sold to the Rebels.   
  
“ _Now, you can be good little worms. Hand over one of your crew members and rest of you can go free unharmed._ ” The captain continues.   
  
“Sir.” Shulk begins. “Despite under equipment, recommend fighting.”   
  
Jon and Masae nod in agreement to their wise friend. He normally knows best in these situations.   
  
Emile turns his attention back to the communicator and glares at the captain. “I’m not surrendering my crew! I don’t WANT to surrender my crew! Surrendering my crew is bad!”  
  
A ‘tsk’ can be heard as the call is ended and both sides begin to power their weapons. Thankfully only one volley of shots from the SS Runaway’s burst laser was enough to have the traders reeling and begging for mercy.    
  
“ _We surrender!_ ” The captain yells into the communicator. “ _Take one of our slaves as tribute; if you destroy us they’ll all die anyway!_ ”   
  
Chocolate eyes watch as two other pirates show a tall pale green Mantis. He was desperately thrashing about trying to get out of his bonds. The other three crewmembers come to consensus to allow the alien on board. Considering Masae is one of his kind, it’ll be easy to subdue him. And if things don’t go to plan, she’ll just eat him. Emile agrees to the trade-off and watches as the pirates untie the bug-creature and toss him into the transporter in the cargo hold.   
  
The Mantis lands right in the captains room, albeit clumsily. His antennae twitch slightly as he stands up. The captain welcomes his new shipmate aboard and offers his hand to show he’s peaceful.   
  
“My name is Captain Emiliano.” The brunette says. “But feel free to call me Emile if you wish.”   
  
The Mantis adjusts his glasses before nodding. “Name is Jake. Grateful to human for saving me from scum.”   
  
“Glad to have you aboard. Now, I’m going to have you work in the door room over here.” Emile explains as he brings up the floor plan of the ship to show Jake where to go.   
  
After getting the probie situated in his new post the captain turns on the FTL drive and starts heading out towards the exit beacon to sector two. The rest of the sector is mostly uninteresting and the crew is unable to buy anything special at any stores. Thankfully the exit beacon was only two jumps away from where Jake was retrieved. At the exit there was a battle but was uninteresting as the SS Runaway was unaffected by anything the auto-scout threw at the crew.   
  
Taking a rest at an outpost Jake takes this time to attempt to get to know his fellow crew members. Emile has wandered off to try and buy some more rations to subdue Masae before she eats something vital.   
  
The tall bug looks at Shulk as he fiddles with the reactor with some scrap to get it upgraded and send more power to the engines. Engi weren’t known for talking much, especially to Mantis’.   
  
“Require assistance Engi friend?” Jake asks as he leans down.   
  
The blond looks at the other and starts to analyze him. “Engi and Mantis not friends. Probability of needing assistance low. Low… Request to be alone.”   
  
Green eyes close as the Mantis man starts to make his way to the weapons room and talk with Jon. He has always wanted to have a casual conversation with a Rockman. The slavers never gave him a chance to speak with one since they were kept in a separate cargo hold. After going through the door to enter the weapons room Jake sees the blond standing a ways away.   
  
“Rockman friend?” The green-haired male says.   
  
Jon turns to see the other. “Hello Jake. Enjoying your time on this ship compared to the last one?”   
  
“Grateful to Captain and friends for saving me. Indebted to friends.”   
  
A light chuckle. “You know we have names right? I’m Jon. The Engi in the shield room is Shulk, and the other Mantis is Masae.”   
  
“Shulk not talk very much. Jon know why?”   
  
The blond scratches his head a bit. “Not really. I think it might have something to do with the fact one of his friends got killed by Rebels and another went MIA after an alien spider attack.”   
  
Jake nods in acknowledgement and watches the smaller alien turn back to work on recalibrating the aiming reticle. It got a little bashed during that last battle. A little bit more time passes before Emile returns to the SS Runaway with Mantis food and some extra fuel cells. After making his presence known and everyone goes back to their posts the captain announces that they’re off to nebula space and to make sure they’re prepared for ion storms.


	2. Sector Two: Uncharted Nebula

It didn’t take much effort for Emile to send the ship to the next sector. He was annoyed though that the sensors were going to be knocked out for the next couple jumps. He can’t see anything going on except where the crew was stationed. Thankfully the exit beacon was really close by and the chance of many problems was low.

Checking the star map the captain plans out the route that will result in the least amount of time in the nebula as possible. After the jump is made a Federation ship can be seen fading away into the clouds. The brunette tells Masae to keep the engines on as they attempt to follow. Unfortunately before catching up a Rebel cruiser comes into view and brandishes its weapons.

With no choice but to fight Jon starts aiming the weapons to take down the enemy ship as soon as possible. The upgrades Shulk had performed allowed the artillery beam to charge a little faster and shave off a few seconds of waiting. Unfortunately the Rebel’s are able to shoot off a missile and completely knocking out the engines, as well as starting a fire.   
  
“Aiyee!” Masae screeches as she runs from the blaze.   
  
Emile checks the status of the room and calls out. “Jake, open the doors that lead to the airlock on the starboard side!”   
  
Jon continues worrying about the weapons but opens the communicator nonetheless. “I’m fireproof you know. Why don’t you send me in there?”   
  
“Jon, this is not the time. It’s faster to devoid the room of oxygen than to wait for you. Besides, their missiles are still online, another fire could start on your side. Just stay at your post.”   
  
A few seconds of waiting go by before the fire is extinguished. Jake is ordered to close the doors, especially the airlock. A few volleys manage to hit the Rebels in the meanwhile and the captain orders both Masae and Shulk to repair the engines. Without those running they can’t jump out of the battle or even evade any shots from the enemy fire. Thankfully the Engi is able to pick up the slack that the Mantis can not perform properly. With their combined work by the time those two manage to repair the engines the fight is over. Taking a sigh of relief the Engi and Mantis make their way to the medbay to heal up before Emile takes off again to get out of the nebula cloud as soon as humanly possible.   
  
Masae curiously watches and attempts to swat at the floating plus signs that surround her and Shulk as they are healed. She was always mesmerized by the machine and how even her singed hair was able to regenerate. Thankfully she wasn’t hurt too badly and it didn’t take long for her burns to go away. Being a bug has plenty of disadvantages since she was much more susceptible to flames. After a bit of waiting the power is diverted back to the engines from the medbay and the two crewmembers return to their posts.   
  
The SS Runaway proceeds a few jumps to find nothing of interest, and if the captain did find something, he couldn’t pay for it being as flat broke as he was. The crew really isn’t cut out for this space travel thing. Unfortunately things don’t really seem to be looking up for them in the near future since this sector was oddly peaceful. Without battles to fight or civilians to save, money is pretty scarce this part of space.   
  
After a slight bit of transgression with a Mantis ship in the nebula, the crew finally make their way to a nearby shop being run by an Engi of all things. It was still so strange to see the sector be so peaceful for a nebula area, not that Emile and the others would complain. It was finally time to take a short break before trudging onwards.   
  
While sitting around in one of the open rooms of the ship to eat, Jake decides to inquire about Shulk’s past, in an attempt to open him up a bit.   
  
“Engi friend looked at Jake funny when Jake arrive.” The Mantis says as he snacks on some unknown type of flesh.   
  
Green eyes flicker slightly as if to imitate sadness. “Mantis… remind me of friend… friend lost to alien spiders… when Jake arrive, I thought friend returned… probability of friend returning so low… so low…”   
  
At that point the Engi morphed himself into some form of bunny and curled up in himself to hide. He was tired of speaking and didn’t want to relive the memories of losing his friends.   
  
“Masae, no.” Emile scolds as he sips his drink to discourage his crewmate from giving the shieldman a ‘loving’ bite.   
  
Jon crosses his arms as he looks over at his fellow shipmate. It was true that when they met the guy he had a bit more in the way of emotions. Ever since that incident his friend has been missing in action and that base more than likely has been overrun by the Rebels. It makes the crew of the SS Runaway wish they had a clone bay, they could have probably saved him then. Carefully the Rockman stands up to head back to his post, taking the curled up bunny that is Shulk with him so his in the shield room if and when he’s needed.   
  
Masae gently pats her Mantis brethren as she heads back to the engine room to try and comfort him. Emile stays behind for a little while longer to ask something of his doorman.   
  
“Jake, why are you so curious about Shulk? Mantis and Engi typically don’t get along.” The captain questions.   
  
The taller alien adjusts his glasses. “Jake had friend. Friend was Engi like Shulk. His name was Josh, and Josh sold by slavers that took Jake.”  
  
“I see. So, you see a bit of similarity between yourself and him. He does look like he needs a friend, so feel free to try and talk to him when we take some breaks.”   
  
Nodding in agreement the Mantis leaves to go back to his post as Emile returns to the helm of his prized spaceship. Rerouting the power from the reactor back to the engines, the SS Runaway makes it’s way towards Rebel space in the next sector.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> End notes
> 
> 1.This chapter is particularly short and bland because the episode it’s based on was fairly short and mostly battle free.
> 
> 2.A running gag I’ll be trying to throw in every chapter is the Masae has to be discouraged from eating/biting/drooling on something/someone because her saliva is acidic
> 
> 3.I keep alluding to things that are true either in the world of Xenoblade or real life. SuperJeenius and JoshJepson are incredibly close friends, but because Jake moved to Japan, they haven’t had much of a chance to do much together, so it’s a joke they were separated in FTL-verse. The whole thing about Shulk losing a friend to a spider is an allusion to the cutscene where he learns Monado Shield in Xenoblade
> 
> 4.Shulk turned into a ‘bunny’ because Reyn one time describes him as once being like a bunnit in a Heart-to-Heart. So, very timid and easily frightened. So, he just curled up as a robotic rabbit thing to hide because he was scared to relive the memory.


	3. Sector Three: Rebel Controlled

Arriving in the new sector, Emile thinks back to when he once passed through this area when it was still peaceful. That was only a few months ago and since then the Rebels have taken near full control. Patrolling scouters can be seen for as the scanners can pick up. Sighing quietly in contempt the captain plans out his route through this sector to make as few jumps as possible. The fuel supply is running dangerously low.   
  
The crew of the SS Runway make their way past a recently ‘liberated’ planet and a fellow Federation ship that had run out of fuel. Unfortunately, both must be bypassed just to get through the sector. Due to the fact that fuel cells are running low, Emile just shouts they need to jump to the store as quickly as possible. They pass by another distress beacon with a high chance of death and finally find themselves at the store.   
  
The captain nearly flies out of the airlock to space swim his way to the cashier and nearly throws all of his available scrap to purchase as many fuel cells as he can. He sighs as he waits to receive his purchase and groans as he remembers that the Mantis food is running low. Masae will just have to find something else to snack upon, hopefully something not Emile’s head. This journey is going to be a very long one, with both the fuel constantly being a worry and needing to feed the Mantis. Thankfully Engi and Rockmen don’t require food, just oxygen oddly enough. It doesn’t take very long for the shopkeep to return with five fuel cells and a free bag of rations for both Mantis and humans.   
  
“I got a call from the Federation, they said you might pass through here.” The clerk says as she places a metallic hand over Emile’s. “You’re going to need to survive, so I wish you luck. The Rebels are nearly here, so you might want to book it.”   
  
“A-alright. Thanks.” Emile says as he picks up the supplies and starts his short swim back to his beloved ship.   
  
Back on the ship, everyone remains at their stations as the captain takes the fuel to his shieldman so they can get back on track and avoid the ever persistent Rebels. Now that everything is in order yet again, the crew of the SS Runaway jump away to a nearby beacon being patrolled by an automated scout ship. At first everyone thought it would just be a normal battle, but they were quite wrong when their opponent sent a hacking drone that latched itself right onto the hull of the ship near the weapons room. Jon can be heard cursing loudly over the communicator as the lock-on is disrupted. That situation is only made worse as a missile breaches the shield and strikes the weapons man right on the back.

  
“Fucking damn it!” The Rockman shouts as he starts stumbling from a sudden daze.   
  
Emile opens the module to show the current reactor power and curses quietly. “Shulk, leave your post. I need you to start repairing the weapons, Jon will help you shortly after he’s out of that daze.”   
  
“Affirmative. Will leave some nanobots to form fingers… form fingers to maintain shield control…” Shulk mutters quietly as he rearranges some of his hands to make them more skeletal to leave just enough of his components to keep the shields running before leaving to assist his crewmate.   
  
By the time the Engi reached the door, Jon was out of his daze and already attempting repairs. Due to the hacking drone, the doors were sealed shut and it was nearly impossible to open them without bashing them down. It didn’t stop Shulk from trying. A minute passes and Emile commands his engineer back to his post as Jon is almost done with repairs on his own without the assistance. Thankfully by the time everyone was sorted back into their positions the weapons system of the other ship was taken out of commision and the Artillery Beam finished it off. The captain breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the drone on the hull of his ship and the AI both exploded into pieces.   
  
“Alright, with that done, let’s reap the spoilers! I-I mean spoils!” Emile shouts happily as he sees a couple fuel cells drifting amongst the newly formed wreckage.   
  
After that battle is said and done the course is set to the beacon right ahead of them and find a convoy asking for two of everything in exchange of upgrading the reactor. The captain deliberates the trade for a little bit after he almost closed communications. On the one hand he loses some of his already low amount of fuel and gets a nearly free reactor upgrade, on the other he keeps his supplies and can worry about the reactor later. About a minute passes before there’s a conclusive answer from the helmsman.   
  
“I’m grateful for the offer, but I will have to decline this trade, Sir. Hopefully someone else friendly will come to your aid.” Emile says as he turns off communications.   
  
Masae can be heard whining from her area. “Emile~ why you not upgrade~? Engines need power too~.”   
  
“Sorry Masae, I might put that higher on the priority list next time we get enough scrap. The artillery beam was a bit more important.”   
  
The communicator is cut off as the FTL gets its charge back and the next jump is prepared to send them to the nearest beacon. When they arrive they are greeted by not only a Rebel Fighter but also two boarders. This will be a fun fight, truly, as this is the first time they’ve had boarders! Audible sighing can be heard throughout the entire ship.   
  
The captain of the Rebel ship comes online through the communicator. “You’re surrounded, just like the last of your Federation friends! Just die already!”   
  
Communications are cut off before Emile could respond, but he just rolled his eyes as he commanded Jake to open the airlock close to where the Rebel loyalists teleported in. There’s not really much they can do from that point, just slowly suffocate as they attempt to bash down the doors. Meanwhile Jon busies himself to lock the Ion Blast and the Burst Laser just so the auto-fire can work its magic while the doors to the weapons room is busted open. Despite his high vitality, the Rockman is taking a heavy beating from the two Rebel scouts due to double-teaming him. Even he can’t last this long so Jon quickly hightails is to the shield room with Shulk as Jake opens more of the doors to suffocate the intruders.   
  
Thankfully the Rebel Ship is getting battered quite quickly, even without Jon in direct control. When they were about to get blown to bits the captain comes back online in a panic.   
  
“Stop, stop, stop! We’ll give you some shit if you let us live! We got missiles, drone parts, and some scrap! You want it!?” He yells frantically into the mic.   
  
Shulk remotely hacks into the weapons control to pause the lock-on so Emile could speak. A minute passes of silence before the captain of the SS Runaway signals the Engi to turn on the weapons again and just end the Rebels. These guys don’t deserve to live after instigating this fight. Just as the communication is ended the Artillery Beam slices across the Fighter’s hull and nearly destroys it. Most of its systems are knocked out to some degree. Just a little bit more waiting and both the boarders and the crew of the Rebel Fighter were out of commision.   
  
Jon breathes a sigh of relief as the reactor power is redirected to the Medbay so he can get a little of his strength back. While he waits to get healed up Shulk meanders his way to the camera room to repair what damage had been done there due to the intruders.   
  
The rockman adjusts his glasses as he brings up the communicator. “That was close dude. If I didn’t decide to book it, I would have died.”   
  
“Yeah, at least you didn’t? You’re the only one here that can take that much punishment.” Emile replies as he scratches his neck and plans out the next jump. “Alright, Shulk, when you’re done there can you use some of our scrap and upgrade the doors?”   
  
Growling from Masae is ignored as the Engi busies himself with using the scrap metal to add more fortification to the doors considering how easily the intruders got to Jon. Thankfully she was able to be kept in her area when Jake hit the lock button on the door.   
  
“Jake no want human friend to become… ‘food’ for Masae.” The other Mantis says as he attempts to find the right word without using ‘mate’ considering the relationship between those two is sort of questionable at the moment.   
  
Once everything is back in order the crew takes off to the next beacon with yet another AI scout. While this one did have a mind-control device that it used on poor Masae, the fight was pretty run-of-the-mill at this point and both Emile and Jon just rolled their eyes. The battle was over quickly and Masae managed to not really destroy anything in her little daze. It was over so quick that the captain just directed them to the exit beacon fairly close to where they were already.   
  
When they arrive there was a planet with some form of life on it. Shulk and Emile went down to the planet and found a field with a lot of six-legged horse-like creatures. The captain off-handedly made a comment of how when he was in school there was a story about a horse-creature that had many legs in Norse mythology, while the Engi attempted to communicate with the animals in a mixture of blinking lights and spoken word. Nothing seems to get through to them unfortunately and Shulk deems his efforts worthless. Just as they start to make their way back to the ship, one of the creatures starts nudging the engineer back the other way. The group of animals leads both crewmates towards a crashed Engi ship. There’s some stray fuel cells, a missile, and a little scrap lying around.   
  
“Captain Emile… suggest staying… will go alone… alone…” Shulk suggests quietly as he gently moves his body in a way that allows him to enter a breach in the hull.   
  
Inside the ship was quite dark. It’s been abandoned for quite some time. Most of the crew has since disintegrated due to wear and tear. In the shield room there was a full body that still looked functional. The model was a little outdated, perhaps more than ten years older than Shulk himself, but the basic design is about the same. Tenderly he uses some of his own nanomachines to bring the other one online.   
  
The green eyes flash on and the rescued Engi. “Hello?”   
  
“Is… Engi friend… functional?”   
  
“I… I think so.”   
  
After getting some basic diagnostics done the other Engi is brought upon the ship where their appearance becomes a little more feminine with long red-orange hair and wide hips. Emile is quite happy to have another crew member, especially one quite skilled in managing the shield system on his ship. Everyone is quite welcoming of the new Engi, especially Masae since it’s another effeminate type.   
  
“Masae curious~. What be name of Engi friend~?” The Mantis asks as she gets in close.   
  
The Engi tilts her head as she tries to access her memory banks. “I… don’t quite remember at this moment. Deactivation has caused my systems to reformat. Backup may take a bit, so things will slowly come back to me.”   
  
Jon smiles. “Well, it’s nice to have you aboard regardless. More hands is always helpful.”   
  
After the introductions are said and done Emile delegates the new crewmember to the shield room and relocates Shulk to man the cameras. Now he has two people good at fixing things! Today has been a good day, despite almost getting stranded in the middle of nowhere space. One everyone is in position the captain decides to take one detour jump away from the exit beacon to check out something before the SS Runaway leaves this sector.   
  
They arrive at the beacon and see a fellow Federation ship within flying distance as well as a Rebel Rigger trying to destroy it. Emile doesn’t bother considering his options and goes ahead in telling Jon to warm up the weapons and for the new girl to brace herself in the shields room. With Shulk on the cameras now it’s also possible to see how long it will take for the enemy to lock-on with their own weapons before firing, how handy. After a little bit of waiting the first volley is sent out and the Rebel’s weapons are offline for the time being.   
  
Jon comes up on the communicator. “Any plans with the weapons or just keep them where they are?”   
  
“... let’s asphyxiate them!” Emile replies cheerfully. “Aim for their oxygen supply!”   
  
While the crew is worried about repairing the Oxygen Bay and the weapons, the artillery beam slices across them and starts a small fire. Instead of just waiting for them to slowly suffocate to death Jon goes ahead and shoots the Burst Laser at their shield room and ends them. The Rockman is easily bored so seeing the explosion was quite satisfying.   
  
“With the chip dest- eh bib a dib buh duh…” The captain sputters as his tongue gets twisted. “With the ship destroyed we can salvage some resources! Let’s contact that Federation ship!”   
  
The female Engi extends the collection arm to grab some loose supplies floating in space as communications are set up with their sister ship.   
  
A female captain comes online. “Thank you for saving us. This ship is transporting civilians on the run from the rebellion and we don’t have the equipment to fight for ourselves.” She pauses to adjust her eyepatch before finishing. “I don’t have much to offer, but I can inform you of a hidden Federation base nearby. Perhaps they can assist you more.”   
  
“Thank you ma’am!” Emile says as the coordinates are downloaded onto the star map showing the base to be in the next sector.   
  
The transmission ends between the ships and the crew makes their way back towards the exit beacon to get on their merry way to the next space sector. Once they arrive Emile tells everyone they should take a rest before continuing on, as well as informing Shulk and the other Engi of their duties of upgrading the reactor to get more power to the engine, more or less so Masae doesn’t eat the captain’s head, and finally get the really powerful doors to keep intruders out.   
  
The crew find themselves gathered in one of the empty rooms so they can all enjoy a quick snack together before heading off. Everyone is quietly eating on their own set of rations before the Engi decides to speak.   
  
“I remembered my name.” She says as she takes a bite of her space taco. “My name, is Lucahjin. However, most called me by simply ‘Lucah’.”   
  
Emile smiles brightly. “That’s great to hear Lucah!”   
  
“Masae happy Lucah remember name~. Masae and Lucah be good friends~.”   
  
Shulk nods silently as he finishes tinkering with his companion to get her processing up to code. Meanwhile Jon gets up to stretch and goes off to make sure the weapons are still properly calibrated. He asks if Shulk can join him just in case something isn’t working. The quiet engineer agrees as he stands up and follows the Rockman.   
  
After that is said and done Emile makes small chat with the rest of his crew, as there is this little bit of peace they have before they have to make their way to the Mantis Controlled sector just ahead. Despite having two Mantis on board, there is not much of a chance of getting through peacefully, the crew of the SS Runaway just have to wait and pray that they make it out alive.


	4. Sector Four: Mantis Homeworlds

Sector Four: Mantis Homeworld  
  
The crew of the SS Runaway soon arrive in a poorly charted area that is one of the many homeworlds to the Mantis. Even Masae and Jake don’t feel safe here despite being members of that very species. The hull is still barely up to scratch and Emile just hopes that they’ll be able to get out of here without too much a problem. Due to her deactivation, Lucah is still getting used to the shield controls on a new ship and isn’t at all familiar with this sector sadly. Other than that, fuel is also becoming an issue as they’re down to their last four fuel cells.   
  
Jon comes onto the monitor, a scowl etched into his rocky features. “Any plans on how we’re not going to get stranded out here o’ _Great Captain_?”   
  
“Don’t get your stupid glasses in a knot. Masae’s downloading the star map for this sector as we speak.”   
  
The rockman can be seen rolling his eyes sarcastically before turning off his communicator. Thankfully for all of them there was a store one jump away from their current location that should hopefully have not only a good supply of fuel, but also some rations, and maybe some spare parts to get Lucah fully upgraded. She was deactivated for about three years after all, a lot has changed for the Engi in that short period of time.   
  
Before going there, however; Emile guides the ship on a short detour that takes them to a battle where there was a civilian ship being ravaged by Matis’ but after the battle was over the valiant crew learned that the civilians had all been killed. They take their reapings from the freshly destroyed Mantis ship, pay a little of respect to any followers of the Federation that might have been on the other ship, and make their way back to the store. There was a slight altercation in the middle of an asteroid field with an unmanned scout, but because it didn’t have a shield the SS Runaway doesn’t fire a single shot and waits for the other ship to be destroyed by the asteroids that collided with it’s hull.   
  
Docking at the store, they are greeted by a trader Mantis. “Hail, traveler. These are dangerous times. Perhaps you find yourself in need of our services?”   
  
Emile nods to the trader and proceeds to leave the ship with Lucah and their newly acquired combat drone in tow to sell. After selling the unneeded equipment the captain buys up all the fuel he can, and asks the Mantis if his crew can fix up his ship while Lucah gets her upgrade. The agreement is made on a payment of eighteen scrap for the repair and forty-five for the upgrade. It will take a bit of time, but in the meanwhile the brunette contents himself to getting some higher-quality Mantis rations as well as himself a snack.   
  
During this down time Shulk let the cameras power down to a minimum so he could work on calibrating them. Because of this, the rest of the crew were unaware that one of the ‘workers’ that was in charge of fixing the spaceship has actually snuck on board and is slowly and quietly making his way to the captain’s room, somehow making it past Masae while she was busy with the control panel making sure it wasn’t acting out again like last time. He quickly hid under the control panel in the captain’s room and waited for the ship to take off again before he reveals himself.   
  
By the time Emile returns with the food and the newly upgraded Lucah, who looks sleeker and shinier than ever, the stowaway still hasn’t shown himself. Even the camera’s don’t show him since he hasn’t been programmed into the ship’s system as an ally.   
  
“Alrighty then!” The captain cheers as he gets situated in his chair again and reroutes the power back to the engines and artillery beam so they can get going. “Jon, keep the weapons ready because we don’t know what’s beyond here! Jake, keep those doors secure!”   
  
Both males salute on camera. “Aye yi!”   
  
The next jump wasn’t too terribly far away. It lead them to an unactivated auto-scout but they only scavenged it for some spare scrap in case of emergency. Other than that they carried on their way to the next jump, but it wasn’t the best place to stop as the SS Runaway was placed right in front of a Class M star. It burned brightly, nearly blinding Emile as he tried to get a good look at the other ship that was present. It had an odd marking on its underside but otherwise looked like a normal Mantis Assault ship.   
  
“Greetings flesh-being.” The Mantis captain says as it comes online, it’s sharp fangs becoming apparent on the screen. “You have some cargo that we were supposed to pick up. Yet, you beat us to the punch!”   
  
Emile tilted his head, a little worried if a solar flare would come up while they spoke. “Excuse me?”   
  
“Shut your fucking meat-trap! We’re taking that cargo whether you come with us dead or alive!”   
  
Jon wanted to give the captain his own verbal what-for but was told to stand down and just get the weapons ready as the captain turned off the camera so he could try and see. Thankfully for them the Mantis captain left its right-hand crewmate alone on the ship to man the bridge and teleported right into one of the airlocks near the engine room. With a flick of a switch the door was opened to the vacuum of space and the other captain could do nothing but try and bust down the door.   
  
While everything was going on battlewise and the Mantis ship was getting utterly destroyed a solar flare managed to breach both ships and start a couple fires. Thankfully for the Federation loyalists their fire started in the weapons room and could easily be put out due to Jon being fireproof, which got rid of the risk of needing to open the doors of the ship to the airlock. However, not everything was particularly going their way as the Engi crewmate of the other ship has teleported into one of the empty rooms of the ship between the shields and camera.   
  
“Jake!” Emile shouts through the communicator. “Intruder in room XD3! Sick ‘em!”   
  
Jake grinned maliciously as he dashed out of the room to handle the intruder. Perhaps after this Engi turns into a pile of scrap he can feast upon it. Since the intruder was already weakened from being attacked on the Assault ship it didn’t take long for Jake to rip him to literal pieces. Happily he takes the remains of the head to snack upon later and scurries back to the door room just in time for another solar flare to hit them ship. Thankfully the battle didn’t wage on much longer as the burst laser killed the captain and the ship forcibly shut down.   
  
The supplies left on the ship and taken into the hold of the SS Runaway and Emile proceeds to jump away to another beacon just to get away from that sun before another solar flare hits. Enough fires have been started already, he doesn’t want any more.   
  
Landing safely in what so far appears to be empty space, the stowaway slowly crawls out from his hiding spot. “D-Did you win?”   
  
“Aiyee!” Emile screams at the sudden noise and pulls out his blaster to point it at the other human.   
  
Quickly the other male sticks his hands up. “D-don’t shoot! I’m friendly! I snuck on while you were getting the ship repaired!”   
  
The brunette lowers his weapons and inspects him. He looks to be slightly younger than the captain, no older than twenty the least, and is considerably shorter. Despite his young age, his hair is white as snow and his eyes as dark as the space around them. He’s wearing general issue Federation clothes along with a white lab coat, he must have been a scientist back in sector one. He did look a little disheveled though, but not like he just rolled out of bed or anything.   
  
“State your name and alliance before I have Masae come in here and bite your head off.” Emie says sternly.   
  
“Robin. I’m with the Federation, I was kidnaped about a month ago and was stuck at that trading post ever since as a prisoner.” He says quickly so he didn’t have to be threatened with the Mantis twice.   
  
“Why’d you hop onto our ship then? We could have easily been part of the Rebels.”   
  
“Your ship isn’t a Rebel one, that’s for sure. I took a chance climbing in here after I managed to distract the guy that was supposed to be watching me.”   
  
The captain tucks his weapon away and glares at the stowaway before softening up. “Well, anyone that has been running from the Rebels should be trustworthy to the Federation. Just don’t think about double-crossing us or you’re going to be Mantis food.”   
  
Robin nods quietly as Shulk’s emotionless face comes up on the monitor. “Mantis ship, five hundred meters away… wish to hack into communicator?”   
  
Emile turns away from the new crewmate to answer his cameraman. “Go ahead Shulk, we’ll see what happens from there since it seems they never noticed that we showed up.”   
  
It was easy to tell the captain was still a little ticked off that someone managed to hitch a ride with him and his crew. Regardless he kept his attention on the transmitter as he set a pair of headphones on his ears so he can adjust the frequency of the radio and listen in on the conversation, he only managed to pick up the tail end of the conversation unfortunately. The person talking was noticeably Mantis though.   
  
“Negative, I have killed more humans!” They can be heard yelling before noticing a little of outside static interfering with the communication. “Whoever you are, you’re going to regret hacking into this call!”   
  
“Fuck.” Jon can be heard saying as he turns on the weapons and sends power to the artillery beam.   
  
The battle surprisingly goes quickly with the Engi of the ship teleporting into the camera room. Jake and Masae were sent in to deal with the threat on board. Everything goes smoothly and the ship makes it out unscathed. From there on the SS Runaway makes their way past a Mantis mining planet using Engis for slave labor, but due to the sheer amount Mantis around it was going to be impossible to save them from being worked to death. Emile sadly tells Masae to keep the ship going forward to get to where they need to go.   
  
Arriving at the Federation base, the sensors are automatically directed to the automated ship attacking it. The weapons make quick work of the ship and scrap it nearly immediately. The sole survivor comes online, a Mantis with spiky hair and a strong physique, and begins speaking.   
  
“This base is no longer safe. Let me join your crew and I’ll have the station’s drones patch up your ship for you.” He says as he looks straight at the camera, despite being well built, he looks exhausted.   
  
Shulk quickly taps into the communicator in a panic. “Let him in, let him in!” He repeats this a few times before the Mantis is teleported into the engine room.   
  
Everyone is ordered to stop what they’re doing as Shulk rushes in to greet the new Mantis crew member. As soon as he entered the room he quite literally flew into his arms in an embrace, recognizing who it is. Emile, Robin, and Jon soon follow suit to see the reunion.   
  
Robin speaks first. “This Engi is friends with him?”   
  
“That’s the friend of his that went MIA after the alien spider attack.” Jon comments. “Welcome back Reyn.”   
  
Shulk’s eyes blink off and on in response to seeing his friend, attempting to simulate crying as his Mantis friend hugs him back.   
  
“Man, you don’t want to know how much hell I’ve been through since that attack. I’ve managed to get this far on my own, but if you hadn’t shown up, I would have been a goner.”   
  
The reunion is cut a little short though as there’s still two more jumps that need to be made before the crew of the SS Runaway can leave the sector. Thankfully these two beacons didn’t provide anything that could have blown them up, and they safely make it to the exit beacon being watched by Federation Loyalists. At this point they are able to take a rest before continuing on, especially since the next sector is claimed to be abandoned for whatever reason.   
  
Robin takes this down time to go see if there’s _something_ he can do on this ship other than stand around and look like a hot mess. He does go into the camera room to see if Shulk needs any help with anything, but mostly the scientist is in there to observe the Engi.   
  
“Do you… want any help there?” He asks quietly. “Or would you mind me watching you at all? I have always found your species interesting.”   
  
Shulk’s eyes flicker in response before he looks at the human. “Assistance unneeded. Company acceptable.”   
  
“I’m curious as to why you speak that way, most Engi speak in full sentences.”   
  
Lucah at this time walks through the room. “It’s because he’s done deleted the program that gives him a good comprehension of emotions you dried out space tortilla. He did it to negate the feelings he had when he lost his friends.”   
  
“... insults aside, I don’t think that would be a very good idea. Emotions are… kind of what make us unique.” The scientist says as he watches his companion fiddle with the cameras. “If you need me to I can probably reprogram those into your system now that your… friend… is here.”   
  
Shulk turns his head to look at him briefly before going back to his work. “If caught in nebula… may permit you to install emotions… otherwise… will wait.”   
  
Robin sighs as he goes back to watching the Engi’s hands form and reform various tools just to make sure the cameras are working properly, maybe he’ll get on Shulk’s ‘good side’ later on. Well, as long as Emile doesn’t get him and the rest of the crew killed between now and by the time they reach the last sector.


	5. Sector Five: Abandoned Sector

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before all of you start yelling at me, everything done in this chapter is played for laughs and mostly not to be taken seriously. This mostly applies to Robin and Emile, not so much anyone else.

_Sector Five: Abandoned Sector_

  
Emile cracks his knuckles as he and Robin make their way to the bridge. The next sector is rumored to have been abandoned after a long series of battles and a mysterious alien race has since shown up. This is going to be quite the ordeal as no one on the ship has any contact with this race and the battles may prove difficult. Yet, there is no rest for the weary as the pursuing Rebel Fleet is still hot on their trail, probably more so now that the SS Runaway is carrying a very important person.   
  
The first jump after arriving in the sector leads the ship right into a battle against a strange ship that has never been seen before. Unfortunately no one has time to explain anything to their supposed allies as one of these ships closes in on their own. Shulk quickly comes into view on the camera showing the other ship’s layout. As far as scans go, that other ship is completely devoid of oxygen yet the crew lives on. Whatever they are, they’re _far_ from being like the other races of the Federation.   
  
“Everyone!” Emile shouts to his crew. “Combat positions!”   
  
The statement was a little redundant since everyone has since returned to their assigned room anyway, but he was just making sure.   
  
The battle soon officially gets underway and the intruder alarm starts going off immediately. Shulk gets a little confused as the other race hasn’t actually teleported onto their ship yet. Bewilderment soon fades into concern as he sees that Robin’s actually been mind controlled. This is only escalated as one of the aliens teleports right onto the ship, between the engine room and the room where the artillery beam is kept.   
  
Just before anything too major happens Emile does manage to yell at Reyn to go on the offense before he’s thrown out of his chair and pushed against a nearby wall.   
  
“Hey! What give-!” The captain yells before Robin slams them together in an awkward kiss. Quickly they separate and the brunette is beyond furious. “Robin, what the hell!?”   
  
Loud explosions can be heard coming from the monitor as multiple projectiles hit the ship causing everything to shake a bit. The fire alarm can be heard going off in the medbay as something in there catches fire, in all probability it was the alcohol in there used to clean wounds. At this point Shulk is forced to take on his role of second-in-command and starts issuing orders to Jon and Reyn to fix the artillery beam and put out the damn fire.   
  
Regardless of what the Engi co-captain was doing, it didn’t stop the fact that Robin somehow managed to quickly strip himself and get on top of the still-resisting Emile. The captain was barking orders for him to get off, yet the words weren’t getting to him. It was always a pain the mind control made the one affected stronger than usual so it was impossible to throw the smaller male off. At this point his blank gaze was directed at the brunette’s lower regions, his hands slowly pushing the Federation issued shirt before tucking it into the hem of the captain’s slacks.   
  
Emile’s eyes close a little as he takes a good look at the hand going towards his private area, a distinct marking is there, not unlike what he saw on that ship in the last sector. He isn’t given any time to react though as just as suddenly as the hand was reaching for him was it jerked away. A deep blush was coating Robin’s face as he finally came back to his senses to see that within the last minute he’s ended up naked and on top of the captain.   
  
No time was wasted getting the smaller man off of him before Emile shouts at him again. “What the hell got into you!? God damn I was hoping that I could trust you!”   
  
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Robin snaps back as he quickly throws his lab coat back on.   
  
“Captain!” Shulk’s voice cries over the communicator. “Battle still in progress! Assistance utmost priority!”   
  
The captain stands up and goes to the communicator to quickly shout at Lucah to get to the bridge before getting himself and the still mostly naked Robin to the medbay. As the two escape the brunette can see Masae’s eyes glow purple as the mind control overtakes her and she heads straight after the shieldwoman as she gets to the bridge. Shulk is forced to leave his post as another alien intruder enters the camera room and Reyn and Jake come in to take it on.   
  
Thankfully for everyone this uncontrollable chaos comes to an end soon enough and everything goes quiet except for the sound of the shields coming back online fully. Emile lets out a breath he wasn’t actively aware he had been holding before glaring right at Robin.   
  
“You’re in _so much trouble_!” He snaps as he watches the small scientist try and keep his lab coat closed as to prevent further embarrassment. “Lucah, fire up the engines and get us out of here!”   
  
“We’re getting out of here bitches!” Lucah shouts as she shoves Masae off her since she just came out of her mind controlled trance. "Hold onto your panties!"  
  
The ship is quickly propelled out of the way of the battle, but not quite enough distance to be considered a jump, just so the captain and the stowaway recover some of their health, and composure. In the meanwhile everything is starting to calm down officially and all the sirens shut off. After getting their health back to a stable level, Emile nearly drags Robin with him back to the bridge so everyone else can get healed up while he has a ‘talk’ with his crew mate.   
  
Despite usually being pretty cheery and carefree, the captain was the last one you wanted ticked off. “Now listen here Robin, I don’t know what the hell happened with you, but I don’t allow _anyone_ to get that up close and personal with my body. Got that?”   
  
“I still don’t know what you’re talking about!” He retorts as he tries to quickly put the uniform without giving the brunette too much of a ‘view’ in the meantime. “I’m sure whatever’s going on is just a misunderstanding!”   
  
“Misunderstanding or not, you threw yourself on top of me! You’re lucky Masae couldn’t see into this room or she would have had your head, quite literally, in her mouth.”   
  
Before either one had the chance to speak up more, Shulk came back up on the communicator. Call Emile and Robin crazy, but they swear he looks sad about this situation.   
  
“Mind control… affected Robin… human reverted to natural instinct…” The Engi mutters quietly. “Similar happen with Masae… natural instinct to kill…”   
  
Chocolate eyes soften for a second before looking back at the stowaway. “Well, I’m not sure if sexual contact is really a natural human instinct, but judging by that mark on his hand that might be a likely explanation.”   
  
“H-hey! I’m not a prostitute! Get your mind out of the gutter!” Robin shouts.   
  
“Well, you’re probably not a virgin. I don’t think anyone can get turned on and undressed that fast without experience.”   
  
“Will you shut up!? I just told you that I don’t have random sex with people! You really are dense!”   
  
“Don’t you insult the captain!”   
  
Again the two get interrupted by Jon coming on screen. “Shut the fuck up already! I can hear you here in the medbay!”   
  
Robin covers his face with his hands in embarrassment at this entire situation. Everything’s just gone from bad to worse ever since he got on this damn ship with these people. He’s commanded to go get a quick shower in this down time while everyone gets patched up and back to their positions. Emile is obviously still fuming as Masae walks into the room to give him a massage.   
  
After about a minute the SS Runaway makes a jump to the next beacon so everything can get rolling again. unfortunately it doesn’t take long for the crew to find themselves in a battle with another one of those mysterious ships, that Shulk has since been able to dub ‘Lanius’. Their ship isn’t terribly scary, but due to a well timed Ion pulse knocking out one of the shield layers along with a Flak gun, the oxygen room just _had_ to get damaged.   
  
Emile makes annoyed grumbles as he slams the button to the communicator in the shower room on the lower level of the ship. “Robin, get your ass out that shower and into the oxygen room, it needs repairing.”   
  
Downstairs Robin can see Emile’s stern expression in the camera, as if he was looking at him, even if he actually wasn’t. Only then did the white haired male see a camera lens literally about a foot away from him, and since this ship previously only had one human on it, of course there wasn’t any sort of wall or curtain around the shower.   
  
_“Why is there a camera even in this room!?”_ The scientist thinks to himself. “Don’t you have two Engi on this ship!? Get them to do it!”   
  
“It was an order, not a suggestion. Now get up there!”   
  
About half a minute passes before the oxygen meter starts beeping incessantly about how the percent of oxygen in the ship has reached 90% and is dropping fast while Shulk and Robin reach the room where it is to try and repair it before everyone starts asphyxiating. How a sentient rock and two robots can suffocate is a mighty fine question but no one has an idea. Thankfully by the time everything is put back together in there the battle is over because the Lanius managed to make a nice bargain with their opponent.   
  
Shulk takes a brief glance at Robin after reorganizing the oxygen tanks to see the shorter human straightening up, apparently he didn’t have time to throw his pants on again since he’s only wearing his lab coat and federation shirt, which is only barely long enough to keep him covered up. He did take notice of the Engi staring, but he didn’t bother to ask why, he was aware that as _mostly_ sentient AI they have a habit of staring off.   
  
It looked like the taller male was about to say something but the stowaway quickly left the room before anything would escape his mouth. Regardless of that the shields come back online and the ship makes a quick jump to the next beacon to see what is in store for the crew next. Thankfully the next battle wasn’t all that important, other than a pulsar occasionally knocking out a system for a bit. Otherwise the Lanius ship was easily destroyed.   
  
One jump later and the SS Runaway comes into the midst of an altercation between a civilian ship and a Lanius Bomber ship. The captain of the civilian ship comes online, their face filled with worry.   
  
“Help! The metal monsters are coming to melt our ship!” They cry as they attempt to get the engines going to escape.   
  
Robin looks at the screen and sees that the weapon icon of the other ship is greyed out. “It doesn’t appear that their weapons are active. Maybe we should try talking to them?”   
  
Emile doesn’t respond to the probie as he overlooks everything going on. Quietly he turns off the weapons to appear non-threatening and has his own ship approach the Lanius one.   
  
“Don’t go any closer! Just kill them!” The other captain says before getting their ship turned around to make a quick retreat.   
  
The brunette captain turns on the communicator to ask Shulk to turn the translator on. From what he’s been able to assess, these aliens speak in some sort of intergalactic binary code, the Engi should be able to get the translation out quick enough. Cautiously Emile asks the Lanius what they want, albeit in that stereotypical way thaw he saw a couple times in the movies, and is surprised to hear them beep out a response.   
  
“Explore.” Shulk begins as he assesses the binary. “Assess trade potential.”   
  
Robin quirks an eyebrow as the Lanius ship leads the SS Runaway to a nearby station so the Federation ship can dock. “Their traders?”   
  
Emile straightens up and goes into a thinking pose as he watches the crew of the other ship disembark and go to a little shop like structure, the lucky bastards not needing special suits to survive in the vacuum of space. He sighs quietly before standing from his captain’s chair to get his helmet so he and Masae can go down and get the ship repaired while everyone else takes this little bit of time to relax.   
  
Robin sighs after the captain leaves and decides to meander off to the weapons room to see if there’s any extra Federation weaponry available for him to use. He tries his best to ignore Jon while the Rockman fiddles with the calibrators, but he knows that the first mate is eyeing him suspiciously.   
  
“So, if you’re not a scientist or a prostitute what the fuck are you?” He asks as he turns to lean his weight on the keyboard.   
  
Robin shudders at the look he’s being given, especially since he’s suddenly feeling self conscious since he hasn’t had much of a chance to go back to the shower room and get his discarded pants. Another sigh can be heard as he takes the question into careful consideration.   
  
“Let’s just say I’m just a really important guy alright? The Rebels want me for their own selfish reasons.” The white haired stowaway comments as he finds a blaster and hooks it to his belt.   
  
A sarcastic chuckle. “What could be more important to them than fucking controlling the damn galaxy?”   
  
“Oh trust me, I know why they want me. I just don’t know if you people will survive long enough to figure that reason out.”   
  
Jon makes a dissatisfied face at the response. “Uh. Huh. How long have you been running from them again?”   
  
“About two years now actually.”   
  
“Wow, and here I thought we were lucky to have survived a couple months with them hot on our tails. Then again I may be a rock, but our captain is pretty damn dense. And _that_ says something.”   
  
Regardless of that last statement Robin decides he needs to go back to deal with his own issues before Jon gets too much information out of him.   
  
Outside the ship Emile is currently waiting for the slow Lanius engineers to fix his ship and mount the new weapon to the outside. He’s still clearly irritated as Masae ‘lovingly’ runs her knuckles over his back to try and calm him down.   
  
“Perhaps when back on ship Masae give love bites?” She asks as she rests her head as close to Emile as she can with their helmets in the way.   
  
The brunette shakes his way out of her grasp in a fit. “Will you stop and listen for just a few minutes without contemplating how you’re going to eat me!?” He stops and watches the Mantis’ mouth close and her glowing eyes take a shape that looks vaguely like concern. “Thank you. It’s just… that Robin guy, there’s something about him I don’t really like at all and I can’t think of what it could be. Other than the fact while under his apparent ‘mind control’ he attempted to get in my pants, but it’s _that mark_ on his hand that bothers me. We saw it once on that one ship but we don’t know what it means.”   
  
A sigh comes from the Mantis as she walks up next to her captain. “Look Emile, Masae know this is a little tough for you, but we need to keep our heads high. We’ve gotten this far and we haven’t died, so look on the bright side. Masae think you should trust Robin.”   
  
Silence befalls them before Masae brings them both in for an actually tender embrace. Despite her being usually pretty goofy, she did know when to be serious. Emile can be heard thanking her quietly as he returns the hug before they get interrupted by one of the Lanius saying all the repairs to the hull are complete. The captain thanks them and gives the worker the required 30 scrap fee for the repair before heading off back to the ship with Masae in tow.   
  
After everyone is back in their respective areas, the ship takes off once again to the next beacon, just hoping nothing goes awry again. The irony is that everything immediately goes wrong. Not only is there a Rebel Invader that managed to fool the crew into thinking it was a Federation ship in trouble, but there is also a whole lot of boarders on deck ready to mess things up more.   
  
“Uh… we’re being boarded!” Emile shouts in absolute panic as the color drains from his face. “Uhhhhh… JAKE! Weapons room, now! Reyn! You too!” He stops as he takes in where everyone is and sees that the only other people available to fight are Shulk and Robin. “Robin, get your ass in there!”   
  
“What!? Me!? You have one more Mantis!” Robin retorts before promptly shutting up. The glare Emile was giving him spelt doom if he didn’t listen.   
  
Emile is still in a visible panic as the fighters make their way to the weapons room. “And they can still board us! God damn it! At least I can just deoxygenate them.”   
  
At this point the fight is definitely underway and Robin is eternally thankful the Rebels are too busy getting their faces cut and eaten off by _very angry and hungry_ Mantis’ and the third is getting every bone in his body broken by Jon. That feeling doesn’t last long as two more Rebels burst through the doors to the weapon room gasping for air after near asphyxiation. He’s not sure what to be more concerned with at first, the fact that Jake and Reyn’s radioactive-green colored blood is starting to ooze out of them a little, the fact the one of their enemies literally _does not have a face anymore_ because of Jake spitting acidic saliva in her face and the proceeding to claw the rest of it off, or the fact that one of the second wave of Rebels just lifted him up and is trying to get off this ship ASAP.   
  
“Come on boss! I got the whore, get us out of here before we die! Sonia here already doesn’t have a face and I think Matt’s arm is being chewed off!” The soldier shouts into his communicator as he starts attacking Reyn from a distance.   
  
Before things get too out of hand Emile orders everyone out of the room, not quite realizing that Robin got left behind for a second as he struggled in his captor’s grasp before managing to get a good kick to his stomach and scurrying off to the shield room where there’s still oxygen. Thankfully everyone, plus Shulk as well, managed to evacuate closer to the shield room for a little bit of a breather as the two goons that teleported second go back to their own ship for a quick rest.   
  
Robin’s eyes narrow in disgust and anger. “You two left me in there to asphyxiate! Or worse, get sent back to their forsaken ship! what were you thinking!?”   
  
Reyn and Jake look at each other with worry as they gobble up the flesh that their were holding while Lucah stepped over to inspect the battered human. Her green eyes flicker in a special way that would most likely translate to her seeing if he sustained any horrible injuries. In the meanwhile Jon is marching himself to the medbay to get himself healed before more intruder's show up. Casually the Rockman drags the Mantis’ away with him so they can finish their snacks and get healed as well. Thankfully enough time elapses before two more of the Rebels teleport onto the SS Runaway and begin assaulting the door system.   
  
Emile is audibly growling as he declines a bribe to let these people live. First they trick him, then board his ship, almost take a crew, AND get their damn blood smeared all over the walls. Of course he’s not going to let the bastards live. It was bad enough that Lucah is forced to retreat into the camera room as Jon marches in to help as the opponent ship blows up. Not only that but Robin has to rush out of there into the Medbay as another Rebel attempts to pick him up while also avoiding Reyn’s acidic saliva to no avail.   
  
This battle has been a massive trainwreck but thankfully the entire crew made it out alive. Robin’s screaming can heard from not only frustration but also from pain of throwing isopropyl alcohol onto burns on his torso from Reyn’s horrible aim. Thankfully due to both that and the nanomachines from the Medbay, there shouldn’t be any scarring from the acid.   
  
While everyone rearranges themselves to get the doors repaired or healed up, the stowaway finally meanders back into the bridge. Irritatedly he shrugs off his lab coat to remove the ruined shirt he had been wearing. Emile is caught up in his own thoughts and doesn’t pay much mind to his crewmate stripping next to him.   
  
“I’ve never heard of the Rebels trying to abduct someone.” He muses. “Usually it’s a quick get in, get out to weaken the crew or at least distract them from the main battle. What possessed them to want Robin…?”   
  
The scientist rolls his eyes. “I’m right here you know.”   
  
“Don’t back-talk your captain, I know you’re there. I heard the door. Care to explain they wanted you so bad? Other than you being a prostitute?”   
  
“They may have called me a whore, but I still stand by the fact I’m a virgin. I already told Jon, but… let’s just leave it that I’m _very_ vital to the Rebel’s mission.”   
  
At this point the brunette turns to look at the other, only to be surprised to see his shirt laying on the floor, burnt and somewhat dissolved. “Don’t you have _anything_ else to wear?”   
  
“Only if you have another extra shirt laying around in your room. If I had extra clothes I’d be wearing them.”   
  
“Wait, that’s _my uniform_ you’re wearing!? Please tell me you’re not wearing my underwear!”   
  
“God no! Why the hell would I do that!? It’s bad enough I’ve been wearing your damn shirt for the past day or so since I’ve gotten on this ship.”   
  
Emile turns quickly to cover his red face and slam it into his keyboard. “Next time we hit a store I’m buying you something to wear, even if it’s women’s clothes. Specifically some underwear.”   
  
Robin rolls his eyes once again as he leans back on the wall. Ever since he’s gotten on this ship things _have_ just gone from bad to worse. Unfortunately after this battle everyone is pretty much exhausted in one way or another and the captain decides to call it a ‘night’. He gets on the communicator to tell Masae to keep the engines on just enough to keep them drifting as he sets the auto-pilot so he can go down and get a shower before heading to bed. He does extend the offer to his crewmate to share his bed but just to be declined. At least they do manage to his a compromise that Robin will take a spare pillow and blanket and just sleep on the floor of the captain’s room.   
  
Perhaps tomorrow things will look better for them, but for now things need to calm down while everyone gets their energy back. There’s no telling what lies ahead in the next sectors beyond this one. Only time will tell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. The mark on Robin's hand will get explained further soon enough, just be patient  
> 2\. I honestly do not want to play Emile off as being a total idiot, as he is quite smart. His personality here is mostly based on how I played the game that lead to this story, so if something stupid happens, nine times out of ten it's because of my own stupidity. Again, this is played for laughs  
> 3\. In case you're at all familiar with FTL itself, boarding parties can't actually take any crew, just kill them. This mechanic is slightly changed as to show that Robin is very crucial to the plot of the story I'm working on here. So while in-game he was actually about to die, I changed it to him almost being abducted.  
> 4\. Also, please pardon the descriptions of violence that is due to Reyn and Jake. Mantis' are very brutal species and this just extends to the story itself :3c  
> 5\. No, the game does not have any areas below deck, especially a bathroom and bedroom. This is added to make the ship seem a little bigger.


	6. Sector Six: Civilian Sector

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just letting you all know, this chapter will mostly discussing Robin's backstory as well as be a lot of idle chatter. Not much will actually be following Episode Six of Round 1 of the original LP, but don't be deterred!

_Sector Six: Civilian Sector_

Enough time seems to pass before Emile finally wakes up and deems it ‘morning’. Quietly he shuffles out of his bed to throw on his uniform, that should be washed now that he thinks about it. Before he actually says anything though he notices Robin still sleeping on the floor on his stomach, the hand with the odd mark resting above his head. Without much forethought Emile started fumbling around for the old cell phone he used back at the Federation Base to see if the camera would still work.  
  
_“Just enough battery, I’ll have to charge this later.”_ He thinks to himself before leaning down next to Robin’s sleeping form and snapping a picture of the mark on his hand. _“I’ll have Shulk analyze this while we travel through the next sector.”_   
  
Standing back up Emile starts to make his way towards the bridge of the ship. On his way he passes by Jon standing in the hallway. His red eyes gaze into the captain’s own.   
  
“Robin still asleep?” The Rockman asks quietly.   
  
A nod. “I figure it best to let him sleep, there’s enough bothering him as it is.”   
  
“You mean there’s enough bothering _you_.”   
  
Emile sighs loudly and motions his first mate to just follow him to the bridge of the ship. He’d rather continue this conversation away from his room just in case their little stowaway acquaintance decided to wake up while they were talking. It’s bad enough that they have to be careful during any encounter with the Rebels knowing now that they specifically want Robin. If it’s at all possible, avoiding fights with them would be for the best.   
  
Regardless of the idea, after arriving in Civilian Space, the first beacon they arrive at is none other than a fight with said Rebels. The captain of the SS Runaway tried to keep his ship out of view but ultimately failed.   
  
“Power up the weapons!” Emile shouts. “And whatever you do, don’t let them on the ship!”   
  
Everyone can be heard yelling ‘aye yi!’ to the captain after being issued their orders. There’s not much in the way of risk of being boarded, but the thought was appreciated. With Shulk manning a fully powered camera, the captain is able to see everything going on on the other ship. He let’s out a light cheer as he watches the Burst Laser ignite a couple fires in the weapons room of the opposing ship. Thankfully this battle should end soon enough.   
  
With the amount of carnage going on, Emile can’t help but let out a maniacal laugh. Both the weapons room and oxygen room are broken and on fire. The Rebel team is trying to stay alive as well as put out the fires, but it’s futile as the Artillery Beam slices through their hull.   
  
Jon can be seen coming online through the monitor. “You uh, want to tone down the evil laugh there a bit dude?”   
  
“EVEN I ENJOY WATCHING THE WORLD BURN SOME DAYS!” Emile shouts. “FOR THE BURNING FLAME OF MY SOUL SEEKS THE BLOOD OF THE DAMNED AS THEIR BODIES IGNITE AND CHAR LIKE MARSHMALLOWS ON AN OPEN FIRE! _ **I HOPE THEY ALL BURN!**_ ”   
  
The sound of weapons firing and the other ship exploding subsides as Jon powers down everything on his end. It’s been a long time since the brunette has shouted like that.   
  
Casually the captain leans back in the chair. “I love the sound of burning Rebels in the morning.”   
  
“Uh, according to intergalactic clock, current time is about three p.m.” Masae calmly says as she turns on her monitor.   
  
“We’re in outer space Masae, time of day is irrelevant, let me bask in this victory.”   
  
Meanwhile, all the screaming from Emile has since woken up Robin. He comes into the bridge extremely tired and irritated, lab coat draped over his shoulders. Grumbles can be heard as he complains about the loud screaming the captain is able to produce when he’s excited.   
  
“Gods damn it Emile, you could wake the dead with that kind of yelling.” He says as he steps up to the control panel.   
  
The captain’s mood quickly turned from elated to irritated. “Just be glad _you’re_ not part of the dead.”   
  
A roll of the eyes. Regardless of the sass coming from the brunette, he still manages to be excited enough to take his ship to a nearby distress beacon that won’t take the crew off course too much. Upon arrival they are hailed by small space station. A brief explanation is given on how their satellite has gone haywire and needs repairing, but they are constantly shot upon when they try and fix it.   
  
Promising to help, Emile ponders how they will handle this situation. Just firing the burst lasers would be ineffective and possibly dangerous. The Ion Blast would be viable, and so would just having Shulk or Lucah remotely repair it with their… Engi-ness.   
  
“Shulk.” Emile starts as he opens the communications to the camera room. “Go ahead and hack into it remotely. That should work well enough.”   
  
“Acknowledged.” The blond replies quietly as he uses his engineering prowess to hack into the satellite and repair the glitch in its system.   
  
Grateful for the assistance the crew of the space station reward their helpers, mostly in the form of spare scrap. The SS Runaway then takes its leave to head to the nearby store. Maybe here Shulk can finish his research on the picture Emile gave him while Robin finally bought some damn clothes. Thankfully most of the scrap that was used for the scientist’s attire was pretty inconsequential to them as they still had enough to upgrade the engines a little bit after buying some fuel.   
  
After climbing back on board with a couple sets of extra clothes and fresh rations for the Mantis’, Emile finally decides to go back to his plucky self with Robin for once, trying to pick up a conversation.   
  
“You know, I never did ask why you’re on the run from the Rebels. Or where you’re from for that matter.” The captain comments as he plans out his route to leave the sector.   
  
Robin quirks an eyebrow. “I’m surprised you’re not sassing me. Regardless, my personal history is nothing to sneeze at.”   
  
Despite the comment, Emile decides to further prod at his shipmate about it as he agrees to help defend a nearby outpost from an auto-scout. He wants to know a little bit more, hopefully getting an explanation about the mark on his hand without being yelled at about the white-haired man not being a prostitute.   
  
A brief moment of silence before Robin sighs outwardly. “Well, I’m from a planet in the Ylisse Core Sector called Plegia.” He pauses as he hears the auto-scout explodes into bits. “There was a neighboring planet that shared its name with the Sector, Halidom Ylisse, ruled by Exalt Emmeryn.”   
  
“I’m sure my mother let me visit Halidom Ylisse a long time ago. I’m from planet Phoenix in the Free Sectors of Zona Ar-9 originally. So I wasn’t too far from your sector.” Emile comments offhandedly as he continues to steer the ship to get closer to the outpost.   
  
“Well, a couple years ago my father declared war on H.Y. after the brother of Emmeryn, my friend Chrom, found out he wanted to sacrifice the Prince and Princess of his own planet to revive the Fell Dragon Grima and take over the galaxy and he tried to intervene.”   
  
A bit of silence takes over as the SS Runaway is sent to another beacon with another auto-scout lying in wait for them. With the prospect of supplies, Emile orders an attack before going back to his discussion.   
  
“So what does this have to do with you?” He asks calmly.   
  
A slight pause. “Well, I have a twin sister named Robbi and the two of us were tacticians for Chrom’s army. We basically were strategists that planned out the attacks ahead of time. Unfortunately amidst the chaos of war Chrom was killed trying to get us away from both the ever growing Rebel Army as well as our father. My sister has since been captured and probably forced to work as the leading commander of the army. She was always better at coming up with strategies than I was.”   
  
“Doesn’t explain how you’ve managed to avoid getting captured.” Emile comments as the opponent ship explodes in front of them. “With an army as big as the Rebel’s one and your own twin commanding them of course.”   
  
“She’s more by the books with tactics. I use any means necessary to get away, so really I’ve been outsmarting her. I can beat her in any game of strategy except chess. She always bested me somehow there.”   
  
A light chuckle. “Sounds like me and Jon really. He can beat me in any game of skill until luck comes into play.”   
  
“Humor aside.” Robin retorts as they make a quick stop at a store to pick up some fuel before taking off again towards the nearby nebula after a couple more jumps. “After Chrom’s death and my sister’s capture is when the Rebel forces started getting to the point they are now. It didn’t take them long to take over Halidom Ylisse or the nearby Regna Ferox before expanding out towards the rest of the sector and beyond. The only reason they haven’t fully taken over is due to my escape. Without me, their plans will never come to fruition.”   
  
With most of his backstory explained, Emile nods in understanding. He has his own personal vendetta with them anyway due to them killing his old friend Stephen and his wife Mallory.   
  
“I hope now that you know all of this you’re going to try your damn hardest to protect me.”   
  
Awkward silence.   
  
“Are you hitting on me!?”   
  
There went that idea.   
  
Regardless of Emile’s reaction to the situation, Shulk was in the camera room headdesking at the captain’s stupidity. As a battle against a Rebel ship begins in a nebula Jon steps in to see what’s up with the Engi, as well as Lucah.   
  
“You… ok there dude?” The rockman asks as he watches Shulk’s hands skitter away to man the weapons in Jon’s absence.   
  
A robotic sigh. “Captain does not understand.”   
  
Lucah leans on her fellow Engi as her own hand continues to control the shields. “What doesn’t he understand?”   
  
“Robin is Prince of Plegia. Vital to Rebels because mark on his hand is Mark of Grima.”   
  
A slight laugh out of the female Engi. “I probably could have told you that, but after being deactivated for ten years I’m still a little spacey. Get it, ‘spacey’?”   
  
Jon groans at the pun. “Anyway, what the hell are we going to do about him? We’re leading him right to those bastards!”   
  
Shulk stares at his keyboard as he hears the Rebel ship exploding on his camera in front of him. “Suggest protecting at all costs…? Captain… too incompetent to properly guard RoRo.”   
  
Ignoring the pet name, being fully aware that the blond is slowly regaining his ability to love, Jon nods in acknowledgement before returning to his post now that the battle is done. The next couple jumps are pretty inconsequential as they only encounter some ‘friendly’ space pirates and another forsaken auto-scout ship trailing after them in a plasma storm in the nebula. Thankfully after that the ship safely arrives at the exit beacon of the sector.   
  
Emile let’s out a small sigh as he stands up from his chair and turning on the communicator to all parts of the ship. “Well, we managed to make it through here without too much bad stuff happening. I’m going to take a quick breather down in my room and then we head off to the Engi Homeworlds when I get back.”   
  
Robin turns as he watches the captain make his way towards the door. “I think I’m going to join you. If you don’t mind me taking your bed for a nap of course.”   


* * *

  
Two sectors over in the Rebel Flagship a woman of similar appearance to Robin himself is going over her battle plan for when the SS Runaway arrives. She’s been biding her time as countless reports come in of every ship sent in to nab her brother has been blown up and all crew either dying or going MIA. Outwardly she looks distressed, but on the inside she is grateful her twin has managed to avoid capture.   
  
“Lady Robin.” The voice of her second-in-command Henry says as he comes in. “They’re getting closer nya ha.”   
  
Behind Henry steps in Tharja. “What do you plan to do when they do arrive.”   
  
Robin sighs as she refrains from making eye contact. “For the sake of keeping your heads and prolonging my already short life, we fight as hard as possible. I do not actually wish to harm my own brother, but regardless, we must fight. Fight, and hope that somehow we end up defeated.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. If you want any reference on how I came up with the names of the sectors it's based on how they are named in the FTL mod "Captain's Edition"  
> 2\. The Sector I say Emile is from is an elaborate play on "Phoenix, Arizona" as the place he lived is Phoenix, which is inside the Zona AR-9 Sector. The "9" is supposed to represent "I" as I is the ninth letter of the alphabet while AR is obviously the first two letters of the state and "Zona" is just the last half. So basically the syllables are switched.  
> 3\. Also, yes, Robin indirectly says he's the Prince of Plegia. Yes, Emile was too dumb to figure that out here. No, he's not going to put that information together.


	7. Sector Seven: Engi Homeworlds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Be forewarned. Emile is really dumb this chapter.

_Sector Seven: Engi Homeworlds_  
  
A couple hours, and one awkward nap later, Emile and Robin finally return to the bridge of the ship so the crew can go on ahead to the next sector before the pursuing rebels catch up. Regardless of that, their main priority is not being torn up by the aggressive Mantis’ plaguing the sector. Hopefully that won’t be too bad as they seem mostly properly equipped. Despite that, it didn’t take them long to encounter another ship after making a quick stop at a store and going to a distress beacon where a small ship is broken right in front of their eyes as a stray asteroid destroys a key component of that ship.   
  
“We don’t have the time to mourn guys.” Emile comments as he salvages some scrap from the wreckage. “We have to keep going lest we turn into space bacon.”   
  
Another jump is made and half of the on-hand missiles are sold to an outpost due to the crew of the SS Runaway doesn’t have any use for them due to a lack of a missile based weapon. Soon enough however they encounter an inactive auto-scout ship. While trying to hack into its data stores Shulk accidentally reactivates it causing its weapons to go online.   
  
“Not what I wanted to do after a nap.” Emile comments as he readjusts the collar of his uniform. “Then again, I didn’t appreciate waking up with you naked and all over me. Like, seriously, what the hell?”   
  
Robin huffs out a cheek. “It’s not all my fault, you’re the one that had your arms wrapped around my torso.”   
  
Regardless of the bickering between the captain and his crewmate about their awkward situation about ten or so minutes ago, the battle still goes on in front of them. The ship itself isn’t all that scary, but annoying nonetheless. It didn’t help that the intruder alarm decided to go off as Lucah succumbed to mind control and started dismantling the shield room. Her natural instincts were telling her to harvest metal materials and she is literally surrounded by them. Emile doesn’t place the fact she is slowly breaking that system as a high priority as sending anyone in to fight her would not really end up well and she can easily repair what she breaks anyway.   
  
“Jon, just keep the heat on their weapons and engine.” The captain orders before going back to arguing with Robin. “Either way, what guy just sleeps naked with his captain!?”   
  
A slight blush. “I-It just means I trust you!”   
  
The other ship can be heard exploding into bits after the proclamation from the white-haired scientist before Jon comes online with the camera as Shulk allowed him to listen in on the conversation.   
  
“I don’t think you have much room to argue Emile.” He says with a smug grin. “Lest you forget I’ve written down every little thing you’ve said that people shouldn’t say when they claim to be straight.”   
  
Both males proceed to shut up after Jon’s snarky remark. Emile for the fact he knows he’s said his fair share of awkward things that has made the Rockman question his human-to-human sexuality, while Robin was for the fact that he _knows_ he’s anything but straight.   
  
Regardless of the high amounts of awkward filling the bridge, the SS Runaway takes off towards another beacon and attempt to hail a refugee ship. Unfortunately the ship was merely bait for a band of space pirates ready to come in and either kill them, or enslave them. They weren’t quite sure which because the pirates do their own thing most of the time.   
  
Panic mode activates itself in the captain as he sees the ship in front of him has two missile weapons. Without any forethought into the his words he shouts that Jon just fires everything at the weapons bay on the pirate ship. Thankfully, mostly due to Emile’s panic, the ship is quickly dispatched and the refugees willingly hand over a few supplies that they can spare.   
  
A sigh of relief can be heard from the crew as a whole as they move on to the next beacon. For the most part, Reyn’s been spending most of his time on the communicator flirting with Shulk as he’s got nothing better to do and the Engi is exceptional at multitasking due to his AI programming. Jake has mostly been pushing random buttons opening random doors out of boredom, and Lucah’s been munching on her seemingly endless supply of space tacos that she procures seemingly out of her ass.   
  
At their next stop the crew receives a message about ravenous, giant, alien spiders and that assistance is needed. Reyn, of course, starts screaming like a banshee at the mere _mention_ of spiders due to the incident all that time ago. Meanwhile everyone else actually debates helping out or not. Of course Emile has the final say in the matter, but still. After much thought the ship goes in to help, sending Jake, Masae, and Jon to tackle the situation as they are the toughest without having the crippling fear of arachnids. Thankfully everything goes well and no one is harmed, or killed.   
  
Grateful for the help the owners of the space station offer up some supplies that the crew happily takes with them. Everyone is thanked before Emile commands Masae to jump them to the nearby beacon that has a store to restock on supplies and get rid of some unneeded materials.   
  
Arriving at the store they are greeted by a small engi ship needing to sell some supplies in order to get home. Ordering everyone to stand down, Emile goes out to start negotiations with Shulk and Robin at his side. Having the Mantis’ with him would have been a bad idea considering who they’re dealing with.   
  
Regardless a nice exchange is made where the medbay is replaced with a cloning bay with a backup DNA augmentation installed as well for an extra fee. Soon enough though a small Zoltan girl with light lavender hair tied with blue ribbons and small, white, fluffy wings sprouting from her head comes by and introduces herself as Princess Melia of Alcamoth from the Seventh Tribunal Sector. Emile swears his heart skips a beat as he laid eyes on the Zoltan princess and heard her elegant voice.   
  
“What can I do to get you on my ship!?” The captain asks frantically as he rushes up and grabs her hands in his own. “I will do anything I swear to you!”   
  
Melia recoils back slightly and her lavender eyes glance over at her own captain’s. She can be seen shrugging as the choice to join the crew of the SS Runaway is up to her as second-in-command. She hesitates as she glances over and sees Shulk standing next to Robin semi-awkwardly.   
  
“Might I suggest an exchange then?” The Princess inquires. “I join your crew and help provide power in exchange for the human.”   
  
Emile looks back and sees Shulk quickly hugging Robin with a stern look. “Done.”   
  
Robin is taken aback. “You idiot! Do you know what you’re doing!?”   
  
“Yes, I do in fact. I’m getting rid of someone useless in exchange for someone that will actually do something on my ship.”   
  
“After I said I trusted you!”   
  
There was no point in making an argument as the young Zoltan floats over with Emile in tow to greet Shulk. At the same time another Zoltan takes hold of Robin by his lab coat and starts leading him towards his new ship. Of course this was being met with some resistance as the human was well aware of how close the pursuing rebel fleet was to this beacon and what might happen to him and this crew. However, he can’t seem to talk any sense into Emile as he happily strides off with Melia by his side.   
  
“Traitor! You’ve doomed the entire Federation! As well as the galaxy itself! I hope you die in a fiery explosion!” Robin shouts as his former captain leads the Princess to his own ship.   
  
Regardless of how much yelling and complaining Robin does there is no way to convince Emile to let him stay. He sinks to his knees as he watches the ship jump away from this beacon and leaves him with this nearly defenseless ship consisting of only an Engi and one other Zoltan. Tears well up at the sides of his eyes as he hears another ship jump to this location. No doubt it’s the Rebels.   
  
“Naga please help me…” He mutters as this impressive vessel nears the Engi ship and proceeds to fire upon it, no questions asked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. I should clarify, the joke of Robin and Emile is meant for laughs, nothing serious or lewd.  
> 2\. The thing Jon is talking about is a reference to one of the Mario Party LPs on TRG where Jon was questioning Emile's sexuality (At that point, we didn't know if he was joking or not, but I assume he wasn't.)


	8. Intermission: Engi Homeworlds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just letting you know, beforehand. This is a filler chapter, not exactly is it important to the main story but when compared to chapter 9, everything will make sense. This chapter is full of carnage and lewds you have been warned. (Yes I had to make the rating higher)

_Intermission: Engi Homeworlds_

 

Robin watched, frozen in fear as the Rebel ship fired missiles and lasers at the ship behind him. Try as they might, the small Engi ship could not shield itself from the barrage of shots sent their way. The scientist watched without emotion as the ship is torn apart and the crew members inside surely died as a result of the explosion. He has no will to fight back as two Elite members of the Rebel forces approach him. Quickly he stands up and tries to space swim away as fast as he can, but it was no use as one of them takes out his blaster and shoots the life-support pack resting on his back connected to his helmet that allowed him to breath in the vacuum of space. Apparently the Rebels have developed a type of Ion blaster that merely shuts it off instead of destroying it. Robin can feel the amount of breathable air decreasing in the confines of his helmet as the Ion prevented more oxygen from flowing in to keep him awake. Soon he drifts out of consciousness and ceases his escape attempt and one of the Elites picks him up to take him back to the ship.

* * *

It didn't take the Rebels long to get Robin onto their ship and back to a larger moving space station where he was to be held until they reached the flagship.

Robin was ordered to be taken to the captain’s room instead of the prison that was meant for him. At first, this seemed to be a case of the captain’s “first come, first serve” knowing Robin’s reputation among the Rebels is him being a whore, but it would make sense that one of the most powerful figures on the ship would be in charge of the prince that had been on the run two years ago. Once Robin was taken to the room, he would be tied to the bed and would probably be there before they reached the flagship. There was one unspoken rule that only a selective few knew and the minute the prince woke up, he would attempt to invoke it just to maintain some sense of dignity a little longer.

It would be difficult to keep his dignity due to the position he was in when he woke up. Robin groaned feeling the pain of being knocked out as he tried to sit up. Immediately he noticed he was on the bed with his wrists and ankles chained loosely to the bed, so he could still move but not enough to go anywhere. He cursed as he tried to look for any sort of lock that would allow him to remove them and escape. There wouldn’t be time for that though seeing as how the captain was waiting for him to wake up.

“Hee-hee-hee. You finally wake up my dear sweet prince.”  
  
Robin gasped as he looked over to the familiar voice. He forced himself to scowl seeing who it was that was chasing him down for two years.  
  
“Oh...that explains the incompetence of the Rebels. You were the one in charge Excellus.”

When one thought about the Rebels, they imagined this imposing masculine figure. Not some effeminate person that was too chubby for his own good and needed to wear bulky clothes to hide the fact he was fat. Robin knew this man for a while though despite his disturbing appearance.

“Did your father teach you to speak like that to your teacher?! You have become very disrespectful over the years!”

Excellus was his teacher and by proxy Robbi’s as well. Their father had forced them to deal with this vain man and learn how Excellus handled strategies. Seeing as how Robin’s father was building up for an inevitable war, they were taught how to deal with enemy fleets and what would be the quickest way with dealing with each race. They were taught how to move around the galaxy and how diplomats worked, but at the end of the day, unless they could implement these facts it was all pointless. Seeing as how they were to be sacrificed to Grima, everything they knew was worthless. Robin was the fortunate twin though to learn how to fend for himself while his sister was stuck in the books. She always told him foolishly thinking that maybe their father would not sacrifice them and allow them the right to fight for their freedom, but Robin knew that was a foolish idea especially for him. Robbi was the gifted one of the two, so she could have been given the opportunity, but he would be doomed from the start.

“I simply became smarter than the teacher. There’s nothing left to learn from you.” Robin told him simply trying to keep his cool. “Seeing as how I have managed to be out for this long, that says something about your intelligence.”  
  
“Why you slick, dirty rat!” Excellus hissed wanting to claw at Robin’s face for these insults. “At the end of the day, I have caught you!”

Robin noticed that there was someone else at the door and gasped. Excellus thought that the white haired tactician was cowering at him, but it was actually the person behind him. A beautiful woman to be exact with long white hair and red eyes. Markings identical on Robin’s hand were all over her body but it didn’t seem like she was born with them. She smiled sinisterly seeing the young tactician quiver on the bed.

“Aww, I’m glad you still remember big sister Aversa.” She spoke immediately forcing Excellus to stand up straight and salute her like she was the boss and not him.

“Aversa...only you would be able to have patience to catch me.” Robin murmured weakly as the first thing he wanted to do was hide under the blanket when he was in her presence.

“Of course. You really think this buffoon is capable of holding back until the time is right? What would happen if our precious ship was destroyed before we even got you back?” She asked taunting Excellus like Robin was. “You’re shivering. Do you want a hug from your big sister?”  
  
“You’re no sister of mine you treacherous blackheart! It was you who gave Chrom’s location away!”

“Aww, but I was just doing my best to protect my precious little siblings.” Aversa replied with an evil laugh. “It would be a shame if our enemy managed to take the only heirs to the throne.”

“Like we would have been in power anyway! We would have been killed and Validar would be in control! Mother she…”

Aversa sighed seeing how Robin wanted to bring up something from the past she did not want to remember.

“Precious Robin, don’t worry. I’ll be sure to tell your sweet Robbi that you are alive and well and that we will be at the flagship. You will soon be home.”   
  
“So sis is alive…” Robin murmured to himself more than Aversa but the femme fatale heard him.

“Of course she is. Your sister thinks she’s so clever putting us on a wild goosechase for two years. If she wasn’t my little sister, I would have taken her head for her treachery. You only got lucky, but I guess your luck ran out when you had to get on the ship of one of the most pathetic captain’s in the history of the Federation. If only you found a way to the Federation instead of going the other way, things would have gone better, but you were always the reckless one.”  
  
“...I won’t leave my sister.” Robin told her darkly. “Just you wait...I’ll find a way out of here and save her.”   
  
“Good luck with that. You’re at our mercy.” Aversa laughed seeing how silent Excellus was. “Excellus, try not to do anything funny before we get to the flagship. The prince has to be in perfect condition before then.”   
  
“Yes of course…” Excellus groaned as Aversa took her leave of the captain’s room. The minute she left, the chubby tactician threw a fit at her attitude. “Who does that witch think she is?! It was all me that planned this! You don’t get to take my achievements because you are the king’s adopted daughter! I have been with the man for a while! The glory is mine!”   
  
Robin stayed quiet during Excellus’ tantrum. It was ironic how Plegia was all politics and everyone close to Validar wanted something from him and would suck up to the king for it. The twin’s mother always wanted her children to be kept out of the affairs, but Validar wouldn’t let them. It was why their fateful meeting with Chrom was so life changing for the both of them. For Robin, it gave him the courage to want to break out of his shell and want to explore the galaxy (and he got his chance to an extent, but now he’s trapped like a caged bird). For Robbi, she fell in love...if Validar just asked for a treaty instead of starting a war...all of this could have prevented...but Chrom’s dead now and Naga knows what happened to his sister despite being alive.

“...My father doesn’t give a damn about anyone but himself.” Robin told him harshly catching his attention. “Even if it were you, he wouldn’t give you everything. Once Grima is revived, everyone is dead...even those who are the most loyal to him. But you…” Robin smirked seeing the look in his eyes. “You’re a pathetic dog who would abandon my father if the situation got tough. You want power, but you flee in terror at something more powerful than you. No wonder Aversa has the leash on you.”  
  
“Don’t talk to me you little shit!” Excellus snapped as he walked over to him, his face beat red. “It was because of you, no one respects me! I had lost so much because you had to play that little prank!”   
  
“Prank…” Robin muttered before realizing what he was talking about and snarled. “That was no prank. I was protecting my sister when you were going to ignore father’s orders and blame it on Chrom!”

* * *

  
_Robin was smarter than Excellus gave him credit for. It was obvious that Robbi had fallen in love with the Yslessian prince, but kept it to herself and focused on her studies. Meanwhile, the people who worked under Validar had lusted for his sister. She was getting to that age where she would be considered “ripe” for the picking. Excellus would be the first to react because he was the twin’s tutor. He did a poor job at hiding his obsession with Robbi and it creeped her out to no end. Robbi had brought it up to Robin when she brought up how he tried to get her to stay longer when she had finished everything and worked ahead to make sure she wouldn’t have to meet with him. Robin felt like the next time his sister was alone with the man that he would assault her and give an excuse to start a war with Ylisse immediately._

_Robin’s plan was very sneaky but at the same time probably gave him the reputation of whore in the first place seeing as how Excellus was the one chasing him down. Robin had asked if there was a wig that would allow him to braid his hair like his sister. Robbi had told her brother that it was too risky, but Robin had to make sure that Excellus wasn’t going to overstep his boundaries. His older sister assisted him in setting things up so he would look like her. They were twins so no one noticed that they switched places for the day. Robin went to the tutoring room that night when Excellus insisted that he needed to teach Robbi something important. He scowled at how everything was set up oddly. Excellus tried to act like nothing was wrong, but when he put that cologne on, that was always a red flag he wanted something sexual from someone. No one gave him anything because he was as hideous as Quasimodo, so using his position was always a joke._

_Robin had sat down and looked through the books his sister was supposed to learn. He sighed realizing how far ahead his sister was in her studies that he felt like he would never catch up to her. Seeing how he was dismayed not from the fact that more work that Robbi had already did was piled on him instead of the subject matter, Excellus offered to help the white haired heir out but he needed to follow Excellus. Robin obeyed and told him to go ahead first and he’ll be right there. Excellus just wasn’t as smart as he gave himself credit for therefore Robin literally just unlocked the door, so anyone could come in easily as well as easily search the room for something hard that he could easily hide underneath his robe and follow Excellus into his room._

_That was where things got messy real fast. Excellus made it clear that it would be a waste if Robbi didn’t have sex before she was doomed to die. He was willing to be her first and teach her the ropes. Robin told him outright he wasn’t interested before he was threatened to kill Chrom for falling for the enemy. Robin sighed and denied anything (as he assumed this would be how his sister reacted when it would be the exact opposite). Everything was just a blur from there for Robin because he recalled Excellus not noticing that he lacked any breasts when his robe was forced off in an attempt to kiss him. Robin had revealed his weapon, hit him over the head and screamed for help in the most feminine voice he could muster. Even if he wasn’t successful at hiding that the girl was a guy, guards including Robin’s main bodyguard Tharja stormed into the room and arrested Excellus for attempted rape._

_Excellus should have been executed as a result, but Robbi brought up how Excellus would out her crush on Chrom if Robin let him die. Looking back, Robin should have just let his sister be shamed for her love for Chrom seeing as how it brought them to this point. He begged Validar to just castrate Excellus since he had shamed their family name for cross-dressing. Robin didn’t get any punishment because protecting his sister from having sex was crucial for Validar’s plan. If Robbi got pregnant, that was the end, so preventing the chubby man who Validar had trusted to have his testacles removed seem to be the best. Only reason his penis wasn’t removed was because Robin joked how it wasn’t so big in front of the audience that he had gotten._

* * *

“And that man is dead anyway. Betrayed by someone you trusted and backstabbed by that Mad Dog.” Excellus smirked. “We lost a good warrior that day, but the prince is dead. That was all that mattered.” He laughed seeing Robin’s expression darken. “You only prolonged the inevitable.”  
  
“But I prevented you from getting laid.” Robin snarked. “You wouldn’t want to be killed for trying again, would you? Father made it clear that my sister and I must remain pure no matter what. For you to give me that derogatory label shows how little you care about father’s rule.”   
  
“Why would you care anyway? You ran away like a spoiled brat! Besides…” 

Robin only realized how how close Excellus was to him. His heart skipped a beat slowly realizing that his former teacher did not care what happened to him now. If Aversa took the glory, he had nothing...meaning…

“That rule has allowed me to confirm if you have participated in any acts. I’m surprised you kept your word while still desiring sex.”  
  
“I don’t.” Robin lied.

“You do. You’re going to die. Would be awful if you got a girl pregnant and she bore a child that could slay Grima, right?”  
  
“That’s a fairytale. Nothing can stop Grima if he were to be revived.”   
  
“It hasn’t stopped you from trying so…”

Robin didn’t realize he yelped when Excellus had gotten on the bed and attempted to force his lab coat off.  
  
“What are you doing?!”   
  
“I’m going to continue where we left off two years ago. You weren’t as eager back then as you are now...and no one is going to save you this time.”

The young prince paled hearing those words and tried to push away.

“Don’t touch me you filthy man!” Robin shouted as he was showing that he might have been stronger than Excellus even if he was chained to the bed. “If I’m going to have sex, I will do it with someone else! I have standards!”   
  
“Does that include getting super close with an idiot captain or a robot?”   
  
“One! At least the captain was attractive and two, the term is Engi! And yes, I would rather have an Engi screw me than your microscopic dick that was too pathetic to cut off! At least Engi’s are capable of enlarging themselves!”

“...You will regret those words.” Excellus growled as he took out something for his uniform and took out a highly advanced remote with a switch. “If you’re willing to reject a chance with a human, then you are better off with the robots…”  
  
Robin gulped wondering what Excellus had in store for him as “punishment”. A simple click of the button caused the door nearby to open. Something big and purple slivered out of the small closet and was locking on to him. Robin wanted to run immediately seeing tentacles inch closer toward him.

  
“W-What…”   
  
“A high class, kinky prince deserves a refined toy that was not easy to get. Not even Aversa was capable of negotiating to get this toy. You won’t have to worry about me if you’re fine with this beautiful kraken.”

“N-No...that’s not…”  
  
Excellus had pressed a button making the robotic space kraken pounce on Robin immediately. Because the chubby man had a firm grip on the prince, Robin couldn’t move out of the way. The tentacles were quick to latch onto him and it pained him that the kraken was strong enough to almost rip off his limbs that were attaching him to the bed. The kraken would simply move into a position where it could cradle the frail man’s body in its tentacles.

“Ack! Why is this thing slimy?! It’s a robot!”  
  
“It’s a very special kraken made for you.”   
  
Another button was pressed and the kraken wasted no time ripping off all the clothes off of Robin’s body minus the lab coat that Excellus had gotten off without needing to tear it. Again, he was naked minus his underwear. Excellus was very pleased with this information and had no problem taunting him while the kraken ran its tentacles over Rob’s body.

“You are so needy. To think you went commando for two years.”  
  
“No! I lost it when...gahh! Stop touching me!”   
  
Robin just cursed his bad luck at this point. Here he was at the mercy of his former teacher and a space kraken and he didn’t have any way of escape. He closed his eyes feeling a tentacle wrap around his dick and start to stroke it gently. He bit his tongue not wanting to let Excellus have his way. One tentacle would be forced through one of Robin’s hands forcing the white haired tactician to stroke the tentacle. The same applied with his other hand. He felt this sticky liquid coating his hands with slime and the feeling alone disgusted him. Two more tentacles would stick themselves to his nipples and start teasing them. There were a few more that forced him to change his position on the bed to where he was on his knees with his butt facing Excellus’ face. Robin’s cheeks were red with shame hearing Excellus laugh at his miserable situation.

“Hee-hee-hee! This is a very good view. How I imagined your sister, but since you two have the same body, it would make sense that the view would be the same!”  
  
“Gross pervert...don’t talk about my sister like…”   
  
Rob shut his mouth immediately so a tentacle wouldn’t be shoved down his throat. The kraken did not like this defiance and was suddenly pulling on his nipples while stopping the stroking gesture to force a smaller tentacle down his small penis hole in an attempts to block any upcoming orgasm. The tactician groaned in pain feeling the wonderful feeling in his groin being denied. He forced himself to endure it because he failed to open his mouth. Robin wanted to let out a cry feeling a tentacle go underneath his legs and wrapping around his inner thighs. There were two sensitive spots that Robin had. One was his back which the tentacles had no problem rubbing itself again and the other was his inner thighs. His body was feeling so hot and the prince didn’t want this feeling at all.

“Hee-hee-hee~ What happens when I do this.”  
  
Another button was pressed before Robin felt something cold lick at his entrance. Robin let out a screech and screamed bloody murder to Excellus who he forgot was there.

“You son of a bitch! Put your tongue elsewhere before I-mmph!”

In the middle of his threats, the kraken shoved its tentacle down Robin’s throat effectively shutting him up.

“What’s that? I can’t hear you over your loud moaning.”  
  
Excellus was done using his tongue anyway and just inserted a finger into his hole. He smiled at how easily his finger went in causing Rob to moan into the tentacle.

“You say you’re a virgin but you sure aren’t acting like one.”  
  
Robin’s former teacher forced another finger down making scissor like motions in the process. Rob felt his back jerk from the action before trying to ignore the tingly sensation. His brain was becoming mush from the robotic kraken that was giving him all the pleasure he could ever dream of. Compared to Excellus, the kraken was 'gentle' and Robin slowly let himself succumb to the toy. Reality hit him recalling that Excellus had just taken out his fingers and slowly started to position himself. His eyes widened in horror and excitement at the chubby man behind him.

“I’m going to wait until the kraken is done with you. I’m going to make you beg for my cock and I’ll make sure that you never insult me again!”  
  
Excellus still refused to remove his pants, but Robin felt something poking him...something long...unless that was just a strap on and Excellus wanted to make himself bigger than what he really was.

The kraken again was proving itself to be less robotic as the session went on. As the purple kraken reached maximum pleasure, it released gooey liquid inside the tactician’s mouth. Robin’s eyes widened thinking that it wasn’t possible for a toy to spray semen all over him. He let out a disappointed moan seeing the tentacle pull away only for another one to take its place. The tentacles in the other places were pouring the same liquid and covering up his body. The smell was nauseating but the taste was sweet and delicious. Robin again felt ashamed for letting himself be put in this situation.

“Are you even listening to me anymore, prince? Your hips are grinding into me like you want me.”

 _“That’s not true.”_ Robin told himself weakly as he focused on the task at hand. _“I want to be rescued! I’m just biding my time! Someone will…”_

Robin’s thought process stopped at that point. Who was going to save him? There wasn’t anyone left. Chrom’s dead. His sister is captured. Anyone he befriended in the Federation had died in the past and now Emile had abandoned him for a more useful companion over him. He was useless...he didn’t do anything on the ship nor try to explain. He thought the captain would realize his importance and let him prove his worth at the end...but that was positive thinking on his end at the end of his tiresome journey. He just wanted a break from all of this running. Robin didn’t want to admit he was giving up. Maybe what he was thinking was making him forget about his duties and forcing him to submit into the role he was always meant to be. A slave to Grima with no ways of escape.

 _“Shulk…”_ Rob wanted to cry out weakly in the midst of losing himself. Why would he think of an Engi over everyone else on the SS Runaway? He hadn’t known any of them long enough that they would just throw everything away for him. That’s not how things worked and he cursed himself that somewhere in the back of his mind he wanted something to go right in his life.

“Hee-hee. It seems you know your place now.” Excellus spoke forcing Robin to return to reality again as the tentacle left his mouth. “Just say it. It will be all on you...unless you’re going to lie to yourself.”  
  
What hope did he have left? Even after this, he would just have a bittersweet reunion with his sister and they would both be killed immediately for Grima. Tears started to swell up under his eyelids with eyes that have lost their color. He only looked weakly toward his former teacher who was waiting for him to surrender.

“Come on. Say it.”

Everything was interrupted however as the intruder alarms sounded and a giant explosion was heard just outside the room.

* * *

 

With the help of a convenient breach from the missile launcher as well as just ramming the ship into other's for a distraction, most of the crew of the SS Runaway managed to board the Rebel station. Thanks to Shulk’s technical know-how and rewiring the teleporter to beam the crew on of course. Emile, Jon, Lucah, and Shulk boarded first and the entire group of Mantis’ followed soon after.  
  
“Shulk, Lucah, I need you to merge and help me find Robin.” Emile barks as he drags out his blaster. “The rest of you… uh… go wild.”   
  
Shulk and Lucah nod as they start combining their nanomachines together to form a single, larger Engi to help keep the Rebels away as they head to where Robin is being held. Staying behind, the Rebels were no match for a team of three hungry Mantises and a Rockman. Masae was enjoying ripping out these people’s throats with her teeth and watching them attempt to fight back. Jon contented himself with just bashing people’s heads against the wall and probably just crushing their bones whenever possible. Jake and Reyn decided to team up to impale their foes on Jake’s claws after a hearty toss from Reyn.   
  
During the carnage, Emile and the combined Lucah and Shulk are quickly making their way through the ship to reach Robin. The captain lowly curses to himself about how this could have been avoided if he wasn’t a total idiot. Yet, now isn’t the time to complain as he and his Engi crew bash through the door to where Excellus is holding Robin.   
  
“In the name of the Galactic Federation, we are here to take back the Prince and take you into custody. So hand him over peacefully or I will be forced to use force.” Emile sternly commands, his usual silly demeanor fading out to show some backbone.   
  
Excellus lets out a maniacal laugh as he uses his own weapon to split the Engi into the two smaller droids. “And what would you do if I refuse!?”   
  
A slasher smile crosses his face. “You’ll end up Mantis food. Now, hand Robin over!”   
  
“You’ll never take me alive!”   
  
Without warning Robin’s former teacher rushes past the captain and his crew back towards the main part of the ship. Shulk is quickly ordered to put himself back together and deactivate the giant kraken as Emile gives chase. Playtime is over and the Captain is tired of not receiving the credit he deserves. Surely saving the Prince of Plegia will help right his wrongs.   
  
Shulk watches as the tentacles of the mechanical kraken press the human close to its main body as he continues to be violated. Robin pleads for it to let him go but most of it only comes out in whiny moans and breathless gasps. Lucah and Shulk nod in acknowledgement of a mutual idea.   
  
“Hey, big and ugly!” Lucah calls catching its attention as she turns and smacks her robotic backside. “Take a bite of my shiny metal ass!”   
  
This was somehow a perfect distraction for the machine, apparently its AI wasn’t programmed for this situation. The kraken lunged at Lucah as she split herself into pieces to avoid the hit before she was struck. In the meanwhile Shulk has snuck around the back to where it’s the most vulnerable and clung to the main body. Using magnetic forces the Engi manages to keep himself latched onto the kraken and slowly undo the control panel after adjusting the nanomachines of his fingers to form screwdrivers. He doesn’t have much time, Lucah can only stall for so long, so he works quite fast to get to the wiring powering this thing.   
  
A scream can be heard from Lucah as a tentacle wrapped around her torso and started to squeeze, hoping to crush her. The one holding the debauched and semi-conscious Robin doing the same. Thankfully, before any lasting damage could take place, Shulk managed to hack into its coding and get it to let go.   
  
“You will hurt RoRo no more!” Shulk shouts as it drops his crewmates.   
  
Lucah cheers as she stands up. “You show that mecha monstrosity who’s boss around here!”   
  
“Now… not time for celebration…” He responds as he takes remote control of the kraken to use it as a makeshift steed. “Grab RoRo. I have a plan.” 

* * *

  
  
Back in the main part of the ship, there’s blood and guts, and a little bit of everything else that could be found on a human body, everywhere. The Mantis’ have since turned red with blood and are finishing off the last of the resistance. In addition Emile had no problem catching Excellus and is standing on his back as he pulls on his arm, threatening to either dislocate the joint or outright rip it off. Unfortunately, Aversa managed to get away from the carnage pretty much unscathed.   
  
Robin’s former teacher can be heard begging for mercy as he’s being held down by Emile. Unfortunately for him he’s surrounded by the three Mantis’, as well as Jon.   
  
“What do you say guys?” Emile asks sadistically. “Should we just let the Federation arrest him? Or you have any better ideas?”   
  
Jon grins and cracks his knuckles. “How about I just crush his skull and call it a day?”   
  
“Masae think us Mantis’ rip him limb from limb and eat him alive~.”   
  
Before they could come to a conclusion, the kraken can be heard letting out a metallic screech as Shulk and Lucah ride in with Robin. The machine has since been reprogrammed to go after a new target. Lucah dismounts to help carry Robin to his crewmates so the other Engi can make his move.   
  
“I suggest all of you move.” He calmly says as he too dismounts the kraken, leaving his hands in its wires to keep it there as he joins the rest of the crew. “I will allow Captain, Jon, Masae, and RoRo to leave first.”   
  
Emile grins as Reyn and Jake move in to hold down Excellus as the Captain and the other three move to the teleporter. “Hasta la vista space cowboy!” He shouts gleefully.   
  
“Enjoy your suffering!” Jon mocks.   
  
Lucah grins as well as she and Shulk walk carefully to the teleporter and wait for it to charge. As soon as it gives the sound of the Ion effect wearing off, the male Engi retracts his hands and the remaining two Mantis’ bound over to join their friends to head back to the SS Runaway. The kraken wasting no time in extending its tentacles to grab Excellus. 

* * *

  
Emile grins as Shulk and the other three return to the ship and transmission of the space station they just disembarked ends. Melia happily bounds to the Engi male and envelopes him in a hug, gleefully praising his hard work and bravery while exclaiming how glad she is that he is safe. Of course the captain isn’t all that pleased that the Zoltan ignores his efforts and goes straight for the co-captain instead.   
  
Robin trudges by Emile to go get a shower, but not without adding his own two cents. “Looks like your little ‘Zoltan girlfriend’ plan backfired in your face too. Like everything else you’ve done.”   
  
Emile stands in the middle of the hall of his ship absolutely bewildered as the prince walks away to go take care of himself. He opens his mouth to speak but deems the action worthless as he watches the other saunter away quietly. Without hesitation he simply orders his crew back to their respective stations as he returns to the bridge to guide the ship back to the exit beacon.

* * *

  
Some time later, after his shower, Robin has since relocated back to Emile’s room to sulk in a blanket burrito. Tears are slowly sliding down his face as he tries to settle down. He actually hasn’t cried in two years, not ever since the day Chrom died and he mourned for his fallen comrade in arms. Yet, here he is, back on the forsaken ship he started on basically, laying on some stranger’s bed trying to calm down. He hears the door open and close in front of him and he elects to ignore the sound, figuring it’s just the captain, but is surprised when Shulk kneels down at the side of the bed so he can look at him.   
  
“S-Shulk?” Robin mutters as he tries to clear the tears from his eyes.   
  
The Engi doesn’t actively respond at first, just having his eyes flash a little before he speaks. “RoRo… safe…”   
  
“Huh?”   
  
Lucah takes a seat at the edge of the bed as she speaks up as well. “He means that you’re not in… as much danger as you were before.”   
  
“No, no, I got that.” He says as he sits up, the blanket falling off his shoulders. “But… ‘RoRo’? He’s said it many times before, but I didn’t pay it any mind.”   
  
“He likes you Robin. At least, as far as he’s able to understand right now. I implanted some of my old coding for romance and emotions in him and he’s been getting a little more open as of late.”   
  
“Oh…”   
  
Shulk quietly crawls onto the bed and brings the other in for a tender hug. “Happy… RoRo safe… did all in power to help…”   
  
Robin mutters a thanks to the Engi as his face flushes slightly. Sensing the uneasiness Lucah slowly moves to join in on the hug. Quietly she pets the human’s hair so she can attempt to comfort him. It seems to work as he calms down a little and proceeds to ask how they convinced their captain to go back and rescue him. 

* * *

  
_After the crew left the poor Robin basically stranded, Emile didn’t hesitate getting Melia acquainted with his beloved ship. Shulk had been sulking the entire time, or at least what appeared to be sulking. It was pretty evident to the rest of the crew that the Engi was not at all pleased with whatever happened back at that store._  
  
_The crew managed to get to the exit beacon of the sector just one jump away before things got really tense on the ship suddenly. Not only did the young Princess Melia profess her love for Shulk, saying Emile was disappointed would be the understatement of the century but we digress, but Jon also brought up his communicator to lecture at his superior._  
  
_“You do know that you did was probably the worst fucking thing ever Emile.” The Rockman swears. “You left Robin on that god forsaken rock with the **Rebels right behind us.** ” _  
  
_He tries to wave it off. “Come on now, he was just dead weight to us. In case of power outage Melia here can at least provide enough energy to keep something at least barely functional.”_

 _Masae was the next to turn on her mic. “Masae suggest Emile turn ship around and retrieve Robin.”_  
  
_“Why is he suddenly a concern to you guys?!”_  
  
_“You led the Rebels straight the damn **Prince of Plegia!”**_  
  
_“Oh. A-And if I don’t go back for him?” Emile asks worriedly, awkwardly pulling at the collar of his shirt as Melia gives him an odd look._  
  
_Masae hisses slightly. “Then Masae will not hesitate to devour you bit by bit.”_  
  
_“Not before I give him a personal what-for.” Jon adds._  
  
_Shulk finally chimes in as well, a murderous look adorning his features. “Captain will go back and save RoRo. **Immediately.** ” _  
  
_Emile gulps as he opens the star map and plans a course back to where they just came from, right into Rebel hands._

* * *

 

Robin sighed after hearing the end of the tale. The captain did not value the prince’s life and was merely forced into the rescue. He requested that the two Engi’s leave him be while he calmed down. Huddling the blanket around his shoulders once more the human tries to ignore Shulk giving him an affectionate hug, believing himself to be unworthy of the attention on this ship.  
  
Regardless of Robin wanting to be alone however, Emile himself soon strides into his room. He looked like he just got out of the shower, his hair damp as well as him only wearing his pants. At first Robin ignored the captain’s presence but it didn’t take long for the brunette to take a seat on the edge of his bed while he ran the towel through his hair.   
  
“I don’t understand why you risked your lives to get me.” The stowaway begins. “And don’t give me any bullshit lies on how you did it to be valiant. Lucah and Shulk already told me you were forced to.”   
  
Emile sighed as he tried to formulate a response. “I didn’t know you were the Prince of Plegia. You probably spelled it out for me but I’m not that good at putting two and two together sometimes. When we got to the station only the Mantises and Jon were supposed to go ahead.”   
  
“So why were you, Shulk, and Lucah there then?”   
  
“Sometimes you have to put on a brave face and jump into danger head first. When Shulk told me that there was some sort of kraken-shaped drone in the same room you were, I couldn’t just sit back and hope Masae or Jon would go and save you.”   
  
“But you didn’t stick around to help shut the damn thing off.”   
  
“I’m not a technical expert like Shulk is, so I just did what I knew I could. Stop whoever that guy was that was with you. He’s been on the Federation’s wanted list for months and that was my chance to show I wasn’t just another idiot captain in the force. Even then…”   
  
“‘Even then’ what?” Robin asks as he sees Emile shaking a little as he starts to cry.   
  
It takes a bit for him to respond. “My crew was the only ones willing to go on this mission because all the other captains knew how dangerous this mission was. I feigned ignorance of the dangers just so I could get away from the base. It was better to set off on a dangerous voyage than to stay behind and watch everyone I care for either get captured or killed. I did that once, and I’m not doing it again.”   
  
They fall into silence as Emile tries to block out the memory of losing his friends. Everyone that was part of the original group had someone’s death they needed to avenge, and they were just lucky they had gotten this far without dying. He’s only been cheery and carefree most of this journey to keep the morale up with his crew. While that had been working for the most part, Masae obviously saw through his facade. It didn’t matter if he showed his true colors now, they’re almost to the main base, and the Rebel Flagship. These Rebels have crossed Emile and his crew for the last time. 

* * *

Aversa had never felt so humiliated in her life. After all of that gloating, never would she had imagined the same idiot that had nearly lead the Rebels to victory would board their station, rescue the prince and blow up the fleet in the process. She was lucky she had a way of escaping on an Engi transformed Pegasus. Otherwise, she would have met the same gruesome fate as the other pathetic Rebel members who despite all of their arrogance did not stand a chance against an ambush from a few Mantises and a Rockman. Aversa never would have imagined the captain was capable of such feat but apparently when the situation called for it, he would come through for the prince.

This is why she didn’t really want to talk to anyone when she escaped only because she didn’t want to go into detail of what had occurred. However, this was a huge event that would get to Validar immediately, therefore she had to explain herself at least to Robbi who was smirking seeing how Aversa was the only one who survived.

“You had my brother, but you let the enemy get the upper hand because you got cocky? I thought you would know better than to spare those idiots. You had followed them this entire time and only when my brother is taken do you not pay any heed to them. You just fell for the obvious Trojan Horse strategy.”

It really wasn’t that. Emile really was an idiot, but Robbi always had to compare something to what she read in the book. Not like it would matter seeing as how Aversa was on the receiving end of the stick. Aversa couldn’t bark back anything except complaining it was all Excellus.

“It was Excellus that allowed them to take the prince back.” Aversa argued. “I told him to not let his guard down, but that fat bastard just had to let his petty revenge get the best of him.”   
  
“Revenge is a dish best served cold, Aversa. Now isn’t a good time when the unexpected happens.” Robbi told her. The smirk on her face widened seeing how the older woman was snarling at her. “Normally, I would kill you for your incompetence like the rest of the Rebels who failed to get my brother back, but you’re my precious older sister, so I’ll give you one last chance to redeem yourself.”

“...And what is that?”

“You will be staying with me in the final battle. The captain is still heading here despite the fact my brother is with him. He is still leading the prince to us, so we have one more chance for father’s plan to happen. If we fail here, there is no Grima. If you intend to flee instead of fighting alongside of me, I will have your head.”

“That’s assuming you don’t die.” Aversa snarked even though it would be impossible. The twins would have to die at the same time for Grima to be revived. If one of them died before the other, then the plan failed. Grima’s revival was so precise that Aversa felt that Validar was asking for the impossible. If Chrom didn’t pull that last minute escape pod trick, then they would have won two years ago, but the prince still had to have the last laugh...and that alone was annoying.

“...Let’s be honest Aversa. I don’t intend to die.” Robbi told her simply as she frowned and folded her arms. “We both already know that I have no intention of leading you guys to my brother. There is nothing you Rebels can do to stop that because you need me as much as you need my brother. If I have to die, I will make sure my brother survives this, but if there is a way to get rid of you Rebels instead of me going down with the ship then I will take that path. It’s not that hard for a grandmaster like me.”

“You little bitch…”

“I will take that as a compliment. Either way, I have high hopes that this idiot captain will surprise me and defeat father. I hope you do your very best to stop him.”  
  
Oh would Aversa love to rub it in how it was Emile that almost lead them to victory and a quicker reunion, but he corrected his mistake flawlessly so there was no way for her to mock the rather cocky tactician in front of her. She looked to the side and noticed her two bodyguards were eyeing her suspiciously. Well, only Tharja was. Henry had his eyes closed and was giggling in the background at Robbi scolding the older woman. Aversa could easily kill them as punishment for defiance but these two have proved to ward off any of the Rebels foolish enough to want to get in bed with her when Validar specifically stated his children were off limits. Secretly, Aversa wanted Excellus to go along with his plan of assaulting Robbi’s twin just so she could brag and describe the situation that Robbi could not be put through due to her status as a virgin woman.

“...Mark my words, Robbi. I will not fail to return your precious brother to you and father.” She hissed as she quickly dismissed herself to take it out on the lower Rebel members.

Once she was gone, Robbi sighed in relief. Little did anyone seem to know, she and Robin shared this connection that allowed them to feel what the other was feeling. There was no way to communicate of course. Twin telepathy was too supernatural even in this odd universe, but Robbi always felt her heart stopped when she knew Robin was in danger. This time, it was no different. She felt her heart would break in two for some odd reason. The feeling stopped and was filled with warmth and determination. This was why she knew that Robin would be coming for her despite now having the easy way out of returning to the Federation. He was stubborn...just like her...so they were going to meet each other in battle for real and hopefully...he’ll make the right decision of stopping her. If they’re both caught, Validar wins. If she dies, but he lives...then the plan is stopped. There was no option in the elder sister’s mind for her brother to die. She loved him too much for that. Which was why…  
  
“Henry...Tharja…” She began catching their attention.  
  
“What is it Robbi?” Tharja asked.

“What do you need, my dear?” Henry asked happily not really caring that he was talking to his superior.

“...Aversa will attempt to backstab me. She still has one more plan up her sleeves I probably don’t know about. When the final battle comes, please stop her from getting my brother. I know my father will be too cowardly to actually fight alongside me when he’s this close to summoning Grima.”

“Isn’t your dad just going to become one with the ship?” Henry asked. “He’s kind of not all the way there seeing as how your kid brother has been on the run for two years.”  
  
“That’s one way to kill him.” Robbi snarked before continuing. “I’m serious. Prioritize my brother’s safety over mine.”

Tharja chuckled hearing that. “Of course. Your brother has always been number one in my heart.”  
  
“Like how you are to me.” Henry hummed causing Robbi to blush.  
  
“...Idiot…I need you to promise me.”   
  
Henry happily nodded while Tharja had already made it clear that Robin was her top priority. Robbi sighed in relief feeling that things would be okay somehow. She slowly rested her hands on her belly and frowned. She really hoped that she could live through this honestly, but the chances of surviving were low unless a miracle occurred. 


	9. Sector Eight: The Last Stand

_Sector 8: The Last Stand_

 

Robin looked at his captain stands up to put on a shirt. He watched as he turned around with a simple smile on his face.  
  
“Come on, we have a galaxy to save.” Emile says as he offers his hand. “You would know more about taking down your sister than all of us combined. So let’s not waste any more time. You are our official tactician after all.”   
  
The tactician nodded as he took the other’s hand to stand up, accepting his offer. His blanket slipped from his shoulders showing he still wasn’t dressed. The captain blushed slightly as he turned to go back to his post.   
  
“At least put some pants on first Robin. Don’t want you running around naked any more than you need to.” He says as he steps out of the room and turns on the communicator. “Melia, set the course for the next sector, I’ll join you in the bridge shortly.   
  
“Acknowledged.” The Zoltan Princess comments.   


* * *

  
A few minutes pass before the SS Runaway arrives in Rebel Space. There’s an entire fleet of Federation ships floating about to greet the crew. Not that Admiral Tully seems all that pleased to see the ship.   
  
_“What is the meaning of this!?”_ He says from the War Room of the outpost. _“Who are you?”  
_   
Emile clears his throat. “I am Captain Emiliano Rosales of the SS Runaway. Homeworld, Free Sectors of Zona Ar-9. We were charged by the Federation forces in Sector Palladion Alpha to deliver a message on how to defeat the Rebels.”   
  
_“You’re flying a very old version of the current Federation Fighter ship, and based on scanners you have a mostly ragtag group consisting of all species that have sworn allegiance against the Federation. How can we believe you?”  
  
_ Robin speaks up. “I am Prince Robin of Planet Plegia in the Ylisse Core Sector. Heir to the Throne and rightful successor to King Validar. We have what we need to take down your adversaries, even if they were once my people.”   
  
General Turzil from the Engi Brigade takes her turn. _“Intel suggests potential counter to Rebel technology. Risk all or save none.”_   
  
“That is correct.” Emile states as he clicks on his keyboard. “With the Prince of Plegia on our side, we know the key weakness to the Rebel Fleet. Their Flagship.”   
  
Sending the star map to the outpost, Shulk responds. “Analysis shows Flagship planning route to Federation Base. Interception possible.”   
  
Tully grimaces before sighing. _“It’s settled. The Rebels will be here in a matter of moments. We will do what we can to hold off their warships but you must succeed in destroying this flagship. Your current outpost can provide some repairs and fuel, and other repair stations can provide aid as well. Good luck.”  
_   
_“Godspeed Captain Emiliano. Godspeed.”_ Turzil says before communication is cut.   
  
Emile nods as a supply of ten fuel cells is delivered to the ship. He brings up the star map that Shulk provided and frowned seeing how far away the Rebel Flagship is. He quickly plans out his own path through the sector and does so according to where he thinks the Flagship will travel to get to the base. A deep breath is taken as he guides his ship towards a nearby repair beacon. It won’t do much good seeing as how the hull is fully repaired already, but the four extra missiles isn’t too bad along with a little extra fuel. Getting through this sector is going to be hard as the Rebel’s already have control and are starting to get to the beacons.   
  
The next jump thankfully wasn’t at all dangerous as there was a small fleet of Federation ships trying to evacuate a nearby settlement. Things are starting to look grim as the crew of the SS Runaway forge ahead to the next couple beacons, after making a quick stop at the repair bay for extra supplies, and finally intercept the Flagship itself. A monster of a ship that has more weapons than the crew could shake a stick at.   
  
Robin glares sternly at the monitor, seeing his sister at the helm of the ship. “This is it… the Rebel Flagship.”   
  
“If we are able to beat this monstrosity…” Emile starts as he orders Jon to activate the weapons. “The Federation has a chance of surviving. There’s no turning back!”   
  
Everyone at their stations had a look of pure anger and determination. This is their chance to show what the Federation can do. Shulk took note of some debris floating around from what looked to be a Zoltan ship, some of which was still somehow on fire. Must have just been destroyed. Regardless, the battle commences and already the crew runs into bad luck. The Flagship is armed with a cloaking device that prevents the weapons from locking on as well as a hacking drone that cannot be attacked. It was aimed straight for the oxygen bay and promptly shut it down for a few seconds, quickly draining the air supply with it.   
  
“Of course she would order that.” Robin states sternly. “She wants to weaken us by asphyxiating us before blowing the ship to bits.”   
  
Unfortunately as soon as the cloaking wore off the ship was assaulted by a barrage of missiles and an artillery beam, slicing right through the hull and damaging the piloting system.   
  
“Damn it!” Emile shouts as he and Melia start working to repair the system. “Robin, keep track of the screen, I’ll be a bit. Issue orders if needed.”   
  
Amazingly the SS Runaway’s own artillery beam and weapons managed to put a slight dent in the ship’s hull before the cloak activated again. The tactician is nowhere as skilled as Robbi when it comes to tearing apart ships. Surely she would find a way to spare him specifically though, right? She knows how dangerous it is to kill her twin, knowing that she will face the same fate.   
  
Regardless, there’s no time to ponder this as a well placed missile tears through the Clone Bay. The captain and the Zoltan princess had just come up from repairing the system to watch this happen on the monitor.   
  
“Of course there’s a damn fire!” The brunette shouts as he pounds a fist into the communicator. “Jon, get your ass into that Clone Bay and put out those fires!”   
  
“Why me!? It would be easie-.” Jon tried to argue as he was finishing locking-on the Burst Laser II.   
  
“That. Was. An. Order!”   
  
Hearing the tone of voice Emile was using, which he has never heard out of him before, the Rockman knew his friend was serious. He went as fast as he could to get to the other side of the ship to get the fire contained before it spread, at least then Lucah and Shulk can go in for repairs. Remotely the captain took control of the weapons and aimed one of the Burst Lasers at the part of the ship that holds the Hacking system. The air was getting hard to breathe, but they weren’t asphyxiating just yet. Once again the artillery beam comes through and slices the ship as the cloak activated.   
  
Melia gazed on and closed her eyes before opening communications with Shulk, being aware of his ability to see into the future. “Expected outcome of this quarrel?”   
  
The Engi waited a bit before answering as he and Lucah are ordered to repair the clone bay. “Probability of success… 10%… Require miracle.”   
  
“Acknowledged.” The girl replies as she turns off the communicator for now.   
  
Unfortunately for the crew, oxygen was starting to run a little low as the fire took most of it away from the Clone Bay. The two Engi, as well as Jon, had to retreat to the shield room, not that Lucah could get back to her station as the Ion effect was constantly knocking it out. Thankfully it was only a minute longer before a small bit of the Flagship was destroyed and it jumped away. The hacking drone attached to the SS Runaway exploding as well.   
  
Emile was starting to get that heavy feeling in his chest as oxygen was running out. “Lucah, Shulk, repairs. Stat!”   
  
Without a word the two Engi rushed into the oxygen bay and got to work with repairs, the last thing they needed was the entire ship going down. Though, Shulk and Lucah nearly died themselves in that room. Everyone stopped after that to take a much needed breather. Soon enough though Shulk, Lucah, and Jon were ordered to the weapons room to repair it before they take off. Emile also ordered everyone back to their stations to evaluate the situation.   
  
A brief moment of silence before the captain spoke. “You’re going to call me dumb, but Shulk, I want you to go to the airlock on the far side of the ship. I’m going to asphyxiate you.”   
  
Everyone on the ship could be heard gasping before Robin spoke up. “Are you insane!? You’re going to kill him!”   
  
“Would you rather him die in the middle of battle and wait for him to be cloned? Or do it now while we have the time?”   
  
Shulk came onto the monitor with a semi-sad look in his eyes. “RoRo. Do not worry… Will return…”   
  
Both Melia and Robin’s eyes were watering slightly as they watched the icon Shulk had on the ship walk towards the airlock. He didn’t even wait for the captain to give the order before opening the doors. His body crumbled in on itself as the nanomachines were devoid of oxygen. Most of them were lost to the vacuum of space as they were deactivated.   
  
The tactician quickly rushed into the Clone Bay after watching a small icon appear on the hud showing Shulk's status as the clone was created. Robin was there to catch him as his newly formed body tumbled out of the machine.  
  
“Shulk?” The silverette asked quietly. “How do you feel?”  
  
Shulk's eyes flickered as he came fully online again. “Not as… low on energy… adjusting to new body.”   
  
Emile gazed on at the two as everyone calmed down a little. This battle is going to be long and arduous. Knowing there was no time to lose the captain opened up the Star Map and nearly had a heart attack seeing where the Flagship was going.   
  
“She’s heading towards the Base!” He shouted as he pounded on the controls. “Shit! Shit, shit, shit! To the Base!”   
  
Without hesitation the FTL Drive was kicked in and the slightly battered SS Runaway teleported to the beacon along with the Rebel Flagship for the second phase of this fight. With a just a good look it was easy to tell it had been damaged considerably due to the previous fight. They may just have a chance at winning this one.   
  
Shulk came onto the communicator immediately. “Captain. Sensor indication says Rebels redirected power to drones.”   
  
“Thank you for the update.” Emile says with determination. “Alright crew! Let’s do this! Get ready for a fight!”   
  
Both sides immediately started aiming their weapons at each other. That wasn’t going to be the problem though. The main problem for the SS Runaway was that a boarding drone is coming in and is aiming for the shield room. It crashes with a large bang and the intruder alarm is set off.   
  
Lucah screams as she attempts to hold the robot back. It’s no use though, Engi are not built for combat. She will easily be overpowered if no one comes in to help. Seeing the distress, Emile growls loudly and orders both Jake and Reyn to go in and help while Lucah gets killed. The captain winces as the Boarding Drone smashes his shieldwoman into pieces as she screams. He even sees Melia averting her gaze from the screen.   
  
Jake and Reyn managed to dash into the room to begin their assault just as their crewmate went down. Now is the time for revenge. Their claws and teeth will easily take this hunk of scrap down. Barely do the boys manage to destroy it before the entire room was devoid of oxygen. Robin and Shulk were ordered to go in and repair the breech and possibly the system, hopefully without dying.   
  
For the main battle, the weapons were hardly making a dent with the four layers of shielding. Yet progress was being made. Unfortunately everything was about to turn worse as a warning came on the screen that there was a power surge coming. Without any more warnings the crew of the SS Runaway found themselves being barraged by lasers and yet another boarding drone. Emile forced himself to ignore Shulk’s scream of agony as he was nearly disintegrated by the laser that swept through the Clone Bay.   
  
Robin came rushing into the bridge after his companion’s second death in less than ten minutes. He pushed past the captain and Zoltan. A strained sigh relief could be heard seeing that Shulk was indeed being cloned and that the machine wasn’t completely broken.   
  
“Status report.” Emile asked as he took manual control of the weapons.   
  
Melia looked over the screen and sighed as she watched Jake keel over from suffocation and Reyn was torn apart. His body being ripped to absolute pieces and his green blood spilling all over the walls. “Jake and Reyn have joined the casualties, Engine and Shield rooms being repaired, Jon close to suffocation.”   
  
“This is all going to hell…” The captain murmurs as he keeps his attention on the battle itself. He can’t afford to take his eyes off the screen for a moment.   
  
As if having three crew members dead already wasn’t enough, the battle continues to side with the Rebels as well placed missiles undo all the repairs done in the Clone Bay and start a fire in one of the airlocks. Not only that, but Jon falls as well, having succumbed to the lack of oxygen by repairing the shields.   
  
“I hate to be that captain.” Emile says as he watches Lucah die once more after repairing the oxygen bay. “But we need to focus more on taking down that ship than reducing casualties.”   
  
Robin nodded. “Trying to keep more people alive was always more of my sister’s doing.”   
  
Suddenly a voice interrupts the conversation as a man busts open the doors to the bridge. “You always did try to separate yourself from your precious sibling, didn’t you your Highness?”   
  
Robin began to panic as Emile shifted control over to Melia to stand protectively in front of his tactician. “Who are you and how the hell did you get on my ship!?”   
  
“Gangrel. Now get out of the way boy, you’re not worth any effort, even if you did take down Excellus by yourself.” The man said as he grabbed the captain by the collar of his shirt and tossed him out of the room. “Don’t worry, we’re not going on that scrap heap you’re fighting, that thing’s going to go down in flames, just like this one.”  
  
“Impossible...Chrom killed you! How are you still alive?!”   
  
“Ever heard of a cloning bay? Your precious prince should have thought about using one when he fell by my hand.”   
  
Robin squeaked as he was grabbed by one of his father’s stand-in Kings. Gangrel was always on the side of mad but was clearly powerful. The Prince was simply too weak to wiggle out of the man’s grasp as they are forced to teleport off the SS Runaway to the ship where his sister is. Emile just barely missed grabbing them as his own ship finished destroying another part of the Flagship.   
  
“Damn it!” He swears as he stands up with a defeated look. “Even if we defeat the Flagship we’re done for!”   
  
Melia turns to assess the damage of their own ship. Everyone was thankfully alive once more or being cloned but there was a breech in the hull that needed to be repaired and everyone needed to take a rest. Masae carefully tiptoes into the room to help comfort Emile as the Zoltan issues orders for repairs.   
  
After everyone calms down from the battle Emile slowly opens the communicator to issue the status of what happened in the bridge. “Robin’s been taken. When we jump to the next beacon to take down that monster once and for all I am going to have Shulk reverse the teleporter on whatever ship Robin’s on.”   
  
“You’re not going alone are you!?” Jon asked in a panic. “You’d die if you did that!”   
  
“I’m going alone, Melia will stand in for me as captain while I go to get Robin back. You guys have to listen to what she says and fight until either this ship or theirs goes down. I’m giving this both as an order as your captain, but also a request as a friend.”   
  
Everyone looks at Emile with concern before begrudgingly agreeing. This is the last phase of the fight. There’s no backing out now. The stakes for this fight are so high that Melia can be seen clasping her hands together in a prayer. Whatever she’s praying for, Emile just hopes it’s for the best outcome for this situation.   
  
The SS Runaway makes one last FTL jump to come face to face with the Rebel Flagship for the last time. It’s somehow redirected its power to a supershield as well as its teleporter. Emile wastes no time in ordering Shulk to get him to Robin before the other ship begins assaulting theirs. Melia takes over as soon as he leaves.   


* * *

  
Emile took a deep breath as he landed on the other ship. Based on the emptiness of this room, this is not the Flagship. This suspicion is merely confirmed when the captain sees both his own ship and the Rebel’s outside one of the windows nearby. He doesn’t have the time to admire the view though, his own ship may very well be torn apart while he’s gone, and there is a prince that needs saving. He took another good deep breath before dashing farther into the ship, the intruder alarm setting off behind him.   
  
Despite being on what appeared to be a very crucial ship in the fleet, no one was being sent to attack Emile. He knew that they would consider him dangerous based on what happened to their station in the last sector. It didn’t matter to him really, the less he had to fight the better. Especially since he knew that if he died, his clone would just end up back on the SS Runaway, whether it was under siege or not. Emile didn’t even bear looking out the windows as his precious ship was assaulted by missiles and lasers.   
  
_“Just hold them off as best you can guys.”_ He thought as he continued running forward. _“We will go down fighting.”_   


* * *

  
Things on the SS Runaway weren’t looking the brightest at the moment. The hull was now in critical condition and Jon was only making matters worse as he had been afflicted by mind control. Not only that, but the Artillery Beam room was on fire. The Rebel also sent a second boarding party into the Engine Room to distract Masae and Reyn while the rest of the ship was under attack.   
  
The body parts and corpses in the ship were starting to pile up. Two Rebels were lying dead in the room just outside the Door Control and Masae and Reyn were just about to finish turning the two soldiers in their room to nothing more than a pile of blood, muscles, and maybe a couple organs. There was no time to assess the damage and try and repair everything, so Melia continued to issues orders for Jon to keep the missiles going while Lucah tried to keep the shields on.   
  
The Zoltan watched with saddened eyes as the the shields began to fail as another volley was coming their way. There was just too much coming at them and the hull wasn’t going to be able to take it. Melia could be heard from the Engine Room slamming on the control panel as she called out for the ‘Great Mother’. The missiles were just about to pierce through the shields.   


* * *

  
Emile gasped for breath as he rammed through another set of doors in the ship. It seems like he’s been running for forever. This ship was clearly a very long one. Regardless of that though he growled loudly as he came face to face with Robin’s kidnapper. The prince himself handcuffed to one of the support beams in the room and gagged in order to keep his voice down and was surprised that Emile came for him again.   
  
“Gangrel!” The captain shouted as he drug out his weapon, a heavy artillery blaster he kept in case of emergency. “Release the prince at once!”   
  
The madman cackled seeing the look of determination on the young man’s face. “You really think you can save this little whelp by yourself? Besides, where are you going to go if you do succeed? Your ship is about to turn to scrap!”   
  
The captain turned out of instinct to look at the battle. It was true, his own ship looked like it was about to go down as a volley of missiles were heading straight for it. He could see that his shields were completely down too. Emile found himself frozen in fear as the weapons were about to connect and destroy his ship. The thought of being forced to watch his vessel get torn apart from the outside terrified him as the brunette pressed up against the glass and a large flash of light overtook the ship.   
  
Emile didn’t even bear to continue watching as he sunk to the floor, shaking. Everything that he had worked for has just gone up in hypothetical flames. Painfully his chest heaved as he found himself crying. A gloved hand pressed against his eye as heavy tears rolled down his cheeks. Here he is, sitting on the floor of the enemy ship, his crew and ship gone without him on it. What kind of captain was he? A horrible one if anyone sensible were to answer.   
  
“Awww, look at the tiny captain crying like a baby.” Gangrel mocked as he trudged over to the broken Emile. “Why don’t you go back to your mommy and whine to her? Oh wait! She was probably killed just like your pathetic crew!”   
  
Emile whispered harshly. “Shut up…”   
  
“I can’t even begin to THINK how a crybaby like you killed Excellus!” The madman laughed as he pulled out the hilt of his energy sword. Robin could be heard muffling through his gags and his cuffs clanged against the pole behind him. “Face it kid, the prince is doomed to die and your mission was all for naught.”   
  
“I said shut up…” The captain repeated as he held his weapon close to his chest.   
  
Gangrel laughed as he flicked his wrist to activate his weapon and turned his attention to Robin. “How ironic you get to watch yet another protector of yours die by my hands. You should be honored your highness. I don’t like to kill just any old fool by myself.”   
  
Robin continued to struggle and panic as he watched Gangrel grab Emile by the top of his head and force him to a standing position. The madman laughed as the captain struggled against him before throwing him to the ground. He was so enthralled by the idea of murdering the young adult right here and now that he nonchalantly kicked Emile’s weapon right out of his hands as it was pointed at him. The smile flashed at the captain was clearly twisted as Gangrel raised his blade above him, ready to strike him down.   
  
“Say your prayers kid!”   
  
Screwing his eyes shut show he didn’t have to see, Robin flinched as Emile’s voice pierced his ears. He couldn’t have stood to watch such a kind-hearted man get murdered in front of him in cold blood. It was hard enough when Chrom was killed, by the same man no less. Salty tears ran down his face as he heard Gangrel’s heavy boots come back closer to him. A delicate hand placed itself at his chin and he was forced to face the murderer. He was slightly thankful though he blocked his view of Emile’s corpse. The prince knew the ship they were on has been moving this entire time and has since moved out of the range of the SS Runaway’s clone bay. For all he knew the captain was gone for good. Blood could just barely be seen behind the man as he got much closer to Robin to taunt him over his new kill.   
  
“Couldn’t stand to watch huh? What, did you have a crush on him?” Gangrel teased. “I think until your sister gets her pretty little ass down here or I’m ordered to bring you to the bridge I’m going to have a little fun.”   
  
**_“Attention all crew members.”_ ** An announcement blared through the communicator. **_“The Flagship has been destroyed. Repeat. The Flagship has been destroyed. Prepare last resort.”  
_ **   
Ignoring the announcement, Gangrel sliced at Robin’s Federation uniform. The clothes that Emile bought him were no match for that sword. Gangrel only went after the pants portion too just to reveal his legs and the fact that despite promising to buy Robin clothes, Emile still didn’t buy him underwear.   
  
“So Excellus wasn’t lying about how you prance around with nothing underneath.” Gangrel mocked as he shamelessly placed his free hand in between Robin’s legs earning a surprised sound blocked by the gag. “I’m not much to care about the rumors he spread to get the other losers to bring you back, but you react the same way your sister did.”   
  
For a moment, Robin glared at him for even bringing up his sister. Again, another evil laugh as he felt the tip of the sword poke at his shirt ready to tear it off.   
  
“Don’t worry. Your sister hasn’t been touched...yet.” The redhead told him as he moved his hand up the shirt he has yet to cut. “Your father is a prick when it comes to your sister...but he won’t know if anything happened to you.”   
  
If Robin could make a snarky comment, he would. He was still terrified of this man though. Even in the past, Gangrel had been that one guy to avoid in the castle despite his high rank. No one knew what he was thinking unless he stated his intentions out loud. The white haired male would be a bloody mess when this was over.   
  
“Gnng…”   
  
Gangrel’s hand had trailed up his belly button and toward one of his nipples. A hard squeeze caused him to jolt and try to break away again.   
  
“Good reaction, prince. Now keep crying for me.”   
  
It was futile to struggle at this point. Robin refused to be put in this situation again after Excellus. If he wished for this to end, he would be killed. He swore he would reunite with his sister, but he couldn’t bare to return to her if Gangrel had the last laugh. Slowly, Gangrel removed his hand underneath Robin’s shirt, before reaching out to grab his rear. Robin jerked as a response so he wouldn’t be able to touch him.   
  
“Ha-ha-ha! You’re still going to fight despite this? Prince, you came back to us after running for so long. You let Chrom and all of his little friends down. When I’m through with you, I’ll give you back to your sister in this state. I wonder what expression she will wear once she sees what I have done to her precious little brother.”   
_  
“ _ _Damn you...I’ll never forgive you Gangrel!”_  
  
Gangrel was too distracted with his new little ‘toy’ that he didn’t even think about the possibility of Emile not being dead. Yet, that was the case. The captain groaned softly as he turned onto his side and reached out to grab his weapon. His body yelled at him to cease his movements, but sensibility be damned as he stood up. Weapon in hand Emile turned around and one could swear that murder was the only thing on his mind. Without warning he took aim and shot at the madman’s feet to get his attention.   
  
“W-wha-!? How are you alive!?” Gangrel asked as he turned towards Emile so he could finish him off for sure this time.   
  
The captain prepared his weapon and took aim again, at the other’s hand this time, and shot the one holding the sword. “Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to bring a sword to a gunfight?”   
  
Despite working on adrenaline alone, Emile still managed to get a joke in. He continued to shoot with decent aim as he walked closer towards Robin’s kidnapper. The lasers from his gun did a decent enough job keeping him from moving. The captain didn’t even really care where his shots went as long as they didn’t hit the prince. A shot to the leg, the chest, even a lucky one to Gangrel’s shoulder. When he finally was close enough to start punching he didn’t even hesitate to slam the barrel of his weapon against Gangrel’s skull, knocking him to the floor.   
  
“By the way. My mom’s alive asshole.”   
  
Robin sighed in relief as Emile finished off Gangrel with a well placed shot to his head. There’s no chance he’s coming back from that one. The captain threw down his weapon as he calmed down and turned to the prince. Calmly he walked over and undid the gag as well as the cuffs around his wrists.   
  
“You alright?” Emile asked softly as he started bandaging his stomach with the gag.   
  
Robin tenderly rubbed at the skin of his wrists. “I’m more concerned about you. I was positive he killed you.”   
  
A gentle smile. “I may need to have some of my stomach area sewn back together, but I think it’ll take a little more than that to kill me.”   
  
The two stood in silence for a while just regarding one another. Emile did make a mention of Robin’s eyes are still full of tears. Without much of a care the brunette gently used the back of his hand to attempt to wipe the tears away. Though, it didn’t really work considering how bloody his fingers were.   
  
“I… think I just made it worse.” He laughed seeing the mess he made.   
  
Suddenly a voice cut through the silence. “OH MY GOD! STOP BEING _GAY!_ ”   
  
Both males froze at the sudden outburst and looked around frantically. They confirmed that they were alone. Thankfully for them they could hear another male yelling along with the other voice. It was coming from the next room over, so the two decided to get a move on and check it out. Robin also picked up Gangrel’s sword on the way out so he’d be prepared.   
  
The next room over seemed to be some sort of prison hold compared to the barren hallway before it. There was quite a few cells with various species of the Federation. One of the ones close to the door had a small woman in a lab coat violently shaking a pink-shirted man with blue hair. He was crying up a storm as she yelled at him.   
  
“C-Chrom!?” Robin shouted as he went over to the cell and grabbed one of the bars.   
  
The woman ceased shaking the other as he looked at the prince. “R-Robin!? You remember my father?”   
  
Emile pursed his lips awkwardly as he decided to go check out the rest of the cells.   
  
Robin activated the blade to release the two humans from their cell as he questioned them. “I don’t think we have time for questions right now, so explain what you’re talking about later.”   
  
The blue haired male nodded. “Right. We should introduce ourselves though when everyone gets free.”   
  
Robin would spend the next couple minutes cutting open the cells housing the rest of the prisoners that the two humans recognized as being part of their own crew. There was a group of three Zoltan, another human, a Mantis, and an Engi. Oddly though one of the Zoltans was missing an arm, Emile didn’t even know they could lose limbs permanently.   
  
Emile smiled awkwardly as he attempted to coax the team into speaking, he didn’t have too much time to waste after all. “So, let’s keep this brief. I’m Captain Emile of the SS Runaway. This is Prince Robin, my tactician. Nice to meet you.”   
  
The Zoltan missing an arm nodded and began introducing everyone, beginning with the Zoltan trio. “Likewise, I’m Captain Dunban. This is my first mate Aria, and copilot Dylan.” He stopped to start pointing at everyone else. “And the rest of these imbeciles are Sharla, Inigo, Alvis, Pepper, and Magnus.”   
  
The tallest of the humans rested a hand on Dunban’s head. “I’m with this one.”   
  
Pepper, the only female human, stuck out her tongue. “I’m Aria’s frand. And she’s a god damn murderer!”   
  
“What did I do!?” The smallest Zoltan asked.   
  
Emile stepped in before things got hectic. “I assure you that your story must be interesting but I’m sort of on a time limit here. We need to save Princess…” He looked at Robin.   
  
“Robbi.”   
  
“Robbi.” The captain finished. “Also, I’m bleeding to death. Slowly.”   
  
The Engi that had been identified as Alvis earlier spoke up. “I can attempt communications with Lady Rosalina once more.”   
  
“He’s been talking to himself since we were captured.” Dunban interjected. “He’s just lost his marbles.”   
  
“No, she’s being a bitch I assure you.”   
  
Emile lost his temper for a second as he asked the two to literally shut up. He explains that he and Robin will continue on through the ship to finally take down the Rebels once and for all by freeing Robbi from their clutches. Quickly he asks Sharla and Magnus to come with him as having strong, capable fighters will surely be necessary. He requests the rest of Dunban’s crew to attempt to stay safe and find a way to hijack the ship.   
  
Robin nodded with determination. Time was running out, not just for his sister but also Emile. They couldn’t loiter around much longer without risking one or both.   


* * *

  
It was purely by miracle that the SS Runaway even survived the frantic battle with the Rebel Flagship. Yet, the vessel was still in one piece. Battered to hell and back, and systems broken here and there, but everyone was alive and Emile’s prized ship saved the day.   
  
Melia sighed as she rested her body against the controls. “Thank the Great Mother.”   
  
Rosalina was quite the enigma with who she decided to help when prayed to. Clearly she favored Emile’s crew over Dunban’s considering the situation. Everyone else gathered in the Engine Room to lick their wounds as they tried to recover from that battle. When, if, Emile himself returned with Robin in tow everyone is going to pitch in a good word for him.   
  
Jon was gently petting Lucah’s tousled hair down as he peppered delicate kisses to her face. “Emile better get a fucking promotion out of this. Risking his damn neck to save the galaxy, as well as the Prince and Princess of Plegia.”   
  
Shulk’s eyes were flashing as he waited patiently for the others to return. Reyn was holding him gently against his torso as he nibbled lovingly at his wiry hair. They deserved this rest after everything that happened.   
  
Masae though was still pretty jumpy, considering how much everyone on the ship had been dying. Jake was still being cloned as they sat there after a boarding drone turned his innards into his outards. There was so much Mantis and human blood painting the walls you could mistake it for modern art.   
  
The Mantis girl poked her hand with her fangs. “Masae worried. No word from Emile. Masae hope Emile not dead.”   
  
Jon and Lucah could see how sad the Mantis was. Despite her obvious jokes about eating the man’s head, she was probably the one person on the entire ship that cared about him the most. Chalk it up to either her just wanting to devour him as a treat later, or that being a genuine feeling of care for him but either way it was clear why she worried. The Rockman and Engi at least had each other to comfort as they waited with bated breath, and the same for Shulk and Reyn, but Masae didn’t really have anyone right now.   
  
Melia awkwardly entered the Engine Room and joined everyone in their circle after clearing her head. “Captain Emile is alive. The most we can do though now is wait for him and Prince Robin to take care of the rest of the Rebels.”   
  
“What if Emile dies!?” Masae snapped with a hiss. “Masae can not just wait for that!”   
  
Jon growled lowly as Lucah kept him from getting up. “Calm the hell down Masae! We know you’re worried about him but this ship could blow up if we so much as accidentally flicked the engine wrong. The most we can do right now is wait and hope he doesn’t screw it up.”   
  
Shulk closed his eyes for a second. A vision coming to him. “Outcome of battle… in Emile’s favor… will return with RoRo and Robbi.”   
  
His tiny speech seemed to have calmed everyone down for the most part. Jake soon came in just so he wasn’t alone, but the air still felt oddly tense. The ship was without its proper captain and his fate was up in the air. The Engi may be able to see some glimpse of the future, but even he’s been wrong before about what he’s seen. Melia just quietly continues to talk with Rosalina, praying for Emile’s safety. A couple others joined her, hoping that the more voices the Great Mother heard, the more willing she would be to help. 

* * *

  
Emile and Magnus shouted as they both rammed their shoulders into the door separating them from the room that was holding Robin’s sister. The rest of Dunban’s crew were attempting to seize the bridge for their own personal use later. The metal came flying off from the combined force of the men and Magnus’ super strength. A group of Rebels were already there attempting to kill the princess as well as her retainers Henry and Tharja. They were just barely holding out against the fighters against them.   
  
“Robbi!” Robin cried as he rushed forward and impaled the Rebel in front of his sister.   
  
Robbi watched as her attacker fell to the floor writhing in pain before being impaled in the chest. “You really did come to save me.”   
  
The reunion of the siblings was cut a little short as another Rebel came up behind the brother and attempted to kill both siblings while they were together. Thankfully Robin managed to parry the attacker before Sharla jumped him and started assaulting his neck. Sadly though he wasn’t as ready to deal with one of the larger guards heading his way ready to strike with his own laser blade. The most he could do was push his sister away and brace for the blow.   
  
  
But it never came.   
  
  
Robin found himself opening his eyes, unaware he even closed them to see both his attacker and Tharja standing rigid in front of him. He could see the blade that was meant for him just barely hitting his own skin before both people fell to the floor.   
  
“Th-Tharja!” He cried in distress. “What the hell woman!?”   
  
Tharja smiled as the one she promised to protect removed the blade from her chest.   
  
“You idiot! I didn’t even get to have a proper reunion with you and you’re going to go die on me?!”   
  
“Heh...I was right...you’re...okay…” Tharja murmured weakly. “My duty has...been...fulfilled…”   
  
She lightly traced her hand down the prince’s face recognizing that he was going to start crying again. Tharja wished that Robin would smile for her before she died, but there wasn’t much she could do. She was ready to die for both of the siblings and it was an honor for her to die for the prince she protected all of her life. She whispered something Robin could not hear before falling limp. Blood was drawn slightly as her sharp nails broke the skin. Her already pale skin seemed to have lost what even existed of its color.   
  
“Tharja...you promised you wouldn't die…” Robin muttered darkly. “We were so close...and as my retainer you did this…”   
  
“She was waiting for you.” He could hear his sister say as she walked toward him. “She waited all of this time to see you again. She died with no regrets.”  
  
“But...dammit…” Robin cursed. “Everyone that I care for ends up dying...dammit…”  
  
“You’re alive. That’s all that matters.” Robbi told him. “Chrom knows that and Tharja is going to him now...Robin...we got to focus now.”   
  
Emile turned to face the twins after getting a very nasty, but satisfying, kill on the last of the Rebels in the room. “You two ok?”   
  
Robbi nodded as she stood up and walked over to Henry to make sure he was ok. “Thank you for your assistance. I… I’m very surprised you got here.”   
  
Before anything else could be said a voice came up on the communicator.   
  
_“Um… is this thing working? Can anyone hear me?”  
_   
Robin perked up a little. “That’s Aria. Yeah, we can hear you.”   
  
_“Oh! Good!”_ The Zoltan girl said. _“Captain and the rest of us cleared out the rest of the Rebels!”_ She sounded like she was really cheery for some reason. _“The ship is now under our control!”  
_   
“Wait…” Robbi said suddenly looking at the mass of corpses around them as Sharla spit out the remainder of someone’s hand. “Where’s Aversa!?”   
  
_“The sexy lady with the white hair?”  
_   
“Yes, her. She was supposed to come and personally kill me if everything went south.”   
  
_“Oh! People die when they are killed!”_ Aria laughed. Pepper could be heard yelling ‘murderer’ in the background as well. _“Also, there was this really weird voice coming out of the main computer and I started randomly pressing buttons. I think I somehow wiped all the data from it, but it also erased the voice I think.”_   
  
Robin pursed his lips. “Well, that answers the question of where father is. If his consciousness was transferred into the main computer and that data is wiped, effectively he’s dead. Right?”   
  
Everyone besides Robbi and Henry ended up shrugging their shoulders in response. For the most part as a sign of not having an answer, but in the case of Magnus it was more of ‘I don’t care’.   
  
“Well, that’s quite the anti-climactic end to this battle.” Henry commented with a laugh.   
  
Robbi was actually quite disappointed. “I wanted to kill them so badly too. I mean, I’m glad that they were dealt with somehow, but I would have liked to at least finish this myself.”   
  
Emile awkwardly cleared his throat as he rested his weapon on his shoulder. “As much as I would love to continue talking about who got to kill who, can we just get this flying menace back to my ship so I don’t fall over dead from blood loss?”   
  
Robbi nodded. “Miss Aria, please relay an order to your captain to get this ship moving towards the SS Runaway. Captain Emile, if you would follow me, I will direct you to the Medbay. I can grant permissions for it to heal you.”   
  
_“Aye aye captain! I mean… nevermind.”  
_

* * *

  
After patching up Dunban’s crew and regrouping with the SS Runaway, the two ships used their respective FTL drives to jump back to the Federation Base. Admiral Tully and General Turzil waiting at the landing strip for the two ships to arrive and touch down. Emile and the Robins stepped off the Rebel ship first with their heads held high. The twins were dressed as royally as they could manage, and Emile was given a fresh uniform before arrival. The rest of the crew on both ships following out of the ships soon after.   
  
Emile saluted his superiors. “I have successfully completed my mission. The Rebel Flagship has been destroyed and Prince Robin and Princess Robbi have been retrieved.”   
  
“A job well done.” Turzil commented.   
  
Tully nodded as well. “We have sent word to the rest of the Federation within our reach about this news. We simply cannot thank you enough Captain Emiliano.”   
  
He smiled. “I couldn’t have done this alone.” The brunette turned to gesture to Robin and the rest of his crew. “Without my loyal and faithful crew, and his highness himself, I couldn’t have done this. I don’t deserve the praise for being any more than a simple leader.”   
  
Robbi shook her head. “Do not listen to him. He risked his life twice to save my brother and succeeded. Singlehandedly he took down one of my highest ranked soldiers and returned my brother as safely as he could. Praise alone is not enough to suffice his bravery and valor.”   
  
The captain found himself blushing bashfully. He didn’t really think he did all that much, most of the fighting was delegated to his crew as he gave orders. To be fair, he was just happy to see all of them alive, and didn’t even complain when Masae sunk her teeth into his shoulder once she got off the ship. Everyone in his crew pitched in a word for what he’s done on this journey to help sway the opinions of his superiors. Though, everything was interrupted when the Commander of the Federation herself and her own personal captain stepped up. Everyone part of the Federation immediately saluted her upon arrival.   
  
Emile gulped as he felt his legs turn to jelly. “C-C-Commander Palutena!”   
  
“Hello there.” She greeted as she motioned for everyone to relax. “Word spreads fast around here about what you and your crew have done for the Federation. I do believe a promotion is in store for you. Wouldn’t you agree that ‘General Emile’ sounds better than your current title?”   
  
“Y-yes ma- I mean miss!” He said triumphantly as he accepted Palutena’s offer.   
  
The Commander turned to her Captain. “Pit, I ask that you go tell the mechanics to start work immediately upgrading and fixing the General’s ship until it’s in top condition and has every system and subsystem available and upgraded to its maximum.” She stopped to assess the Rebel transporter as well. “We will need to have that fixed, but as it is not Federation property we will have to charge.”   
  
Robbi nods gently. “Understood Commander, we will pay whatever it takes to get the vessel back in a condition to return us to Plegia.”   
  
Pit could be seen eyeing Robin a little and glaring at Shulk before speaking. “I can probably swing you guys a discount since you are royalty~.”   
  
Emile watched as the Princess followed the captain and Commander to talk about getting her ship fixed. “So… that’s it. We won.”   
  
Jon nodded as he watched Dunban’s group make arrangements to stay with the princess so Inigo could go home and start searching for his mother. “I guess so. What are we going to do? We can’t exactly go back to where we started.”   
  
“Masae think we join Royal Guard~.” Masae chirped as she clung to Emile’s arm. “Prince would enjoy our company~.”   
  
Shulk could be seen agreeing excitedly. “I agree… RoRo most comfortable with us… need to remain with him…”   
  
The brunette smiled. “I guess it’s settled then. Once we’re all geared up to go to the Ylisse Core Sector, we’ll head off and vow to protect Robin and Robbi. It’s the least we can do.”   
  
The four core members of the SS Runaway agreed. They had all been out in space way too long and it would be nice to settle down again. Besides, it would be a better idea for everyone to be back on some sort of planet since some nice relationships have either been formed or reforged along the way. The last thing they needed was to risk losing anyone more than they should.   
  
“Hey General.” Magnus could be heard calling after Emile finished their plans. “Can I ask a favor of you?”   
  
Emile tilted his head. “What is it?”   
  
The human pulled out a small bundled of hair, neatly tied together. “Your little Mantis friend mentioned you had a Clone Bay. Just before Dunbun’s ship was totaled my ex-wife died while the ship was on fire. Can you try and bring her back with this?”   
  
The request seemed sincere enough, despite the aforementioned Dunban yelling about he was never told that Gaol was an ex. “I can certainly try it out.”   
  
Before anything could be done though the Robins returned with just Pit behind them. Both of them had a pleasant look on their faces as they stepped up to Emile.   
  
“I never did get to properly thank you for what you’ve done.” Robbi commented. “The same can be said for my brother. So we’re both going to do that now.”   
  
The chorus of reactions was clear as day as both the prince and princess leaned up and pulled against his shoulders a bit to press a gentle kiss on either side of Emile’s face. He stood up straight immediately with cheeks red as a tomato after they pulled away. Shulk’s eyes flashed red for a second and Masae was hissing very loudly in the background. Henry merely started laughing a little evilly at the thought of possibly getting a chance to hurt someone, even if he did save his life.   
  
Robin spoke before anyone else. “Now keep in mind that this is merely a courtesy to show our gratitude. You already have someone and I believe Shulk and I…” He paused to see Reyn nibbling at the Engi’s hair and Melia squeezing his hand. “As well as Reyn and Melia _I guess_ , are content with each other.”   
  
Emile stuttered. “Y-yeah! Cool. Got it.”   
  
“In addition I already have Henry in my life.” Robbi commented.   
  
Said man waved off to the side as if introducing himself. “I knocked her up.”   
  
The tension in the air suddenly got a little better despite the blunt comment. This is going to be one heck of a journey for the two ships now that it’s confirmed they will travel together.   
  
Emile sighed as he tried to clear his head. “This is going to be a long trip…”   


* * *

  
Off in another part of space a young lady was watching from her screen at her observatory. Alvis was clearly the one in view as she smiled and he turned his attention to her.   
  
_“You are going to make it so we get to Plegia in one piece correct?”_ The Engi asked sarcastically.   
  
Rosalina smiled as she waved a hand. “I’ll think about it~.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Except for the first two parts of the Flagship Battle and the conversation before it, all of this chapter was basically fudged for the sake of plot. FTL does not allow for these kinds of shenanigans so I had to get creative. Especially for this since in my actual video series my ship blew up during the last phase of the fight.
> 
> 2\. Yes, I did pull an FE:A where Robin’s “hero” pretended to die just to save him in the end.
> 
> 3\. The presence of Dunban’s group is based on the second set of recordings I did for FTL on my Youtube. That run had been kind of garbage since that ship exploded during the FIRST phase of the fight. For the sake of plot though I left the crew alive and just had them captured by the Rebels.
> 
> 4\. If you want to know why the battle with Aversa and Validar was anti-climactic to hell and back is because the last fight major scene is SUPPOSED to be Emile against Gangrel since he “came back from the dead” and it turns out the SS Runaway survived the fight as well. That, and Aria and Pepper are just me and Ginta so effectively we’re just trying to break the fourth wall because just go back and look how long this story has been unfinished for until now. The author got lazy.
> 
>  
> 
> Ginta: If she finished sooner, it would have been an epic time traveling battle and actual final battles. The more you know!
> 
> Ari: Shut up yo.
> 
> 5\. For the record Emile and Robin is supposed to be an ongoing joke of the series. Like Robin just not having pants. Nothing is supposed to be taken out of it other than humor.
> 
> 6\. By the way, because Robbi is pregnant, the plan to revive Grima would have failed anyway. In the end it would have just ended with two dead members of the Royal family. So effectively the Rebels would have lost anyway because the Flagship was destroyed. So… thanks Henry!


End file.
